The effect of tool heating arrangement on fibre material forming

•A novel mould heating arrangement improves formability of fibre material.•The new process demands minimal process parameter adjustment and it is stable.•Resulting tray quality improves with less volume of rejects. In this paper, a new heating arrangement has been developed for improving the performance of paperboard forming process. Problem areas of current heating methods were identified by analyzing several forming moulds used for tray production in packaging industry. This analysis was used as basis for design process of the new and more advanced mould. The new process utilizes oil to distribute heat evenly in the mould resulting in reduced process parameter adjustment during production. The versatility of the improved design manifests in less variance in outer dimension of trays and reduced volume of rejects.