Vacuum Formed Trays: A Buyer's Guide to Materials, Tooling and Cost

Custom vacuum formed trays are one of the most-quoted items in thermoforming — medical trays, ESD component trays, food trays, dunnage. They’re also where buyers most often over- or under-specify. This guide covers the four decisions that set your tray’s price and performance.

1. Material — the biggest cost lever

• HIPS — the economical default. Food-contact grades for bakery and meal trays; easy forming, clean appearance.
• PET / APET — high clarity for retail and medical presentation; recyclable, and available as recycled RPET.
• PP — chemical resistance, hot-fill and microwave capability, best fatigue life for hinged features.
• ABS — the choice for returnable dunnage that must survive years of handling.
• ESD grades — static-dissipative (10⁶–10⁹ Ω/sq) for PCB and component handling; specify whether you need dissipative or conductive, and ask for per-batch resistance verification.

A supplier who extrudes their own sheet — as we do — controls this cost directly instead of passing through a sheet vendor’s price and lead time.

2. Single-trip or returnable?

A single-trip tray in 0.4 mm HIPS and a returnable dunnage tray in 2 mm ABS can hold the same part and differ in price by an order of magnitude. Decide the tray’s life honestly: transit-only, in-plant returnable, or customer-facing presentation.

3. Tooling — cheaper than you think

Vacuum forming tooling is aluminium or epoxy, not hardened steel. A multi-cavity tray tool typically costs a fraction of the injection-mould equivalent and is ready in 2–4 weeks. Cavity count is the trade-off: more cavities = lower per-part price, higher tool cost. Your annual volume decides the sweet spot — share it with your RFQ.

4. What drives the per-tray price

Material area × thickness × grade is most of it, then cycle time and trimming. Nesting efficiency matters too: a tray designed to nest tightly ships and stores dramatically cheaper. Good suppliers will suggest design tweaks — stacking lugs, draft changes — that cut your landed cost.

Getting a quote that means something

Send a drawing or, better, a sample of the part the tray must hold, plus annual volume and whether the tray is single-trip or returnable. At Indu Thermoformers we design the cavity around your part, prove it at first-article stage, and produce from our own sheet — send your part across and you’ll have a costed tray quote, usually within 24 hours.