Hello every body ,I am looking to know the best way to make personalized chocolate mold,with clean and clearresult .10xin advance for your help"

updated by @hassan-al-mallah: 04/12/15 03:16:01

Hello Hassan,

Maybe you can expand a bit on your requirements?

I'm not entirely sure if you want to make the mould yourself, or if you want to order them? Is it a complicated pattern you want to make, how many moulds, how many products per mould?

If you want to make something yourself, I'd look into vacuforming thermoplastics. It's not a very complicated process and doesn't need special machines: with basic woodworking skills, some tools and time it's quite feasible to do yourself. I find that PET-G plastic sheet is cheap, easy to work with and produces excellent moulds: they're definetely clean and clear ;-) Be aware that vacuforming has some limitations: it's not suited for every shape and the quality of the mould will depend on the quality of the pattern (e.g. any roughness in the pattern will show on the chocolate) and the quality of your vacuform table (better vacuum gives better reproduction of the pattern).

There are lots of videos on Youtube about vacuforming and building a basic vacuform table, those should give you an impression of the process. Just let me know if this is what you're looking for?

Cheers, Bart

Dear Bart

Thank you so much for your reply and for supported information , yes, I am looking to make the molds in house , for qty 2 kg min for each design , you is it the handmade forming wooden box giving a good result or, to invest in a thermoforming machine ? and which PET thickness can use to get a good result .

and about the 3d mold , you prefer to use CNC router , or there is another solution for that .

Thank you again for your kind of collaboration

Kind Regards

Hassan

Hello Hassan,

Do you mean a product of 2kg? That is a big chunk of chocolate, what dimensions will this be? I've no experience with something that large.

Anything that is rigid enough and can withstand the heat from the plastic, can act as a pattern. I've used wood, plastic, aluminium, cast resin, epoxy coated styrofoam, even plaster for thermoforming.

Obviously a CNC router and thermoforming machine are a professional solution to make this type of mould. But you're looking at quite a large investment in money (guestimate: several thousand dollars) and time (learning how to operate this machinery). I don't have a CNC router (yet!): at the moment I let somebody else do the CNC routing for any shapes I can't make myself.

PET thickness will depend on size, shape and complexity of your design. As you stretch the warm plastic over your pattern, it will become thinner in some places. For some shapes 1mm is ok, for others I use 2mm. E.g for large flat shapes I prefer 2mm, as it is more rigid than 1mm and there is less chance of cooling spots on the chocolate. But thicker plastic will need higher vacuum for good reproduction of small details and corners on the pattern.

My vacuum forming table is giving me good results for what I do, I make moulds for small shapes with simple geometry (largest so far was 20x20x5cm). First upgrade will be a better vacuum pump so I can use thicker PETG.

With thermoforming it is as with making chocolate ;-) There is no foolproof recipe: sometimes things don't work and you don't know why. Then you need some feeling and experience to balance all parameters for good results.

Best regards, Bart

Thank Bart , the size of the chocolate will from 4 cm up to the chocolate bar size , not 2 kg for 1 ps

and what you said , I am looking for something with low investment , till to be expert in that domain

Thank you a lot for you kind of collaboration

Kind Regards

Hassan