We Don’t Just Form KYDEX®—We Engineer Solutions
An In-Depth Technical Interview with Micah Chaban, Co-Founder and VP of Sales at RapidMade
Introduction
Micah Chaban serves as Co-Founder and VP of Sales at RapidMade, a leading innovator in manufacturing that blends advanced engineering with state-of-the-art digital fabrication. With a background in aerospace and custom fabrication, Micah is uniquely positioned to translate material capabilities like those found in KYDEX® into end-use manufacturing success. RapidMade works across industries that demand performance, compliance, and visual integrity in equal measure: aerospace, healthcare, public infrastructure, branded retail, and emerging tech.
In this exclusive interview, Micah offers a deep look at KYDEX® a thermoplastic sheet material originally developed for aerospace interiors and explains how it’s evolved into a platform for building smarter, safer, and more resilient products at scale.
What makes KYDEX® stand out from other high-performance thermoplastics?
It’s where strength, adaptability, and industry standards seamlessly converge. KYDEX® is a PVC-acrylic alloy, so you’re getting the chemical resistance and flame retardancy of PVC, plus the surface aesthetics and UV durability of acrylic.
That combination allows you to manufacture parts that look great, meet flammability codes, and survive long-term wear in real-world conditions without paint, laminate, or topcoat. It’s a single-layer solution that outperforms a lot of multi-layer assemblies.
For us at RapidMade, it means we can go straight from sheet stock to finished part cutting, forming, and assembling everything in-house while giving clients a finished product that’s field-ready on day one.
What are the first things you ask a customer when determining if KYDEX® is right for their application?
First, we ask: Where is this part going to live? What kind of abuse is it going to see? Are we talking about a tray table in an aircraft cabin, or a kiosk in a public train station, or an enclosure in a hospital ICU?
Once we understand the exposure impact, chemicals, heat, humidity we can narrow down the right grade. Next, we inquire about how it will be processed. Are we thermoforming it? Membrane pressing it? Machining it? Wrapping a core?
From there, we ensure full compliance with key regulatory standards, including UL 94, FAR 25.853, ASTM E-84, and ISO cleanroom classifications. KYDEX® has a grade for each of those, and matching them early avoids problems later in the validation process.
How does KYDEX® compare to materials like ABS, polycarbonate, FRP, or metal in demanding environments?
ABS is decent for general plastic work, but it fails quickly under heat or chemicals. It’s soft, prone to UV yellowing, and doesn’t clean up well. KYDEX® outlasts it in almost every performance category.
Polycarbonate offers superior strength but comes at a higher cost, is more susceptible to stress cracking, and is less easy to form. You’ll also have to paint it if you want a consistent aesthetic. KYDEX® eliminates that step.
FRP is dense, prone to brittleness, and challenging to machine with precision. It also doesn’t tolerate the kind of tight folding and detailing KYDEX® does. Plus, once it chips, it’s done.
Compared to metal, KYDEX® is lighter, faster to fabricate, and way easier to modify. You’re not welding or painting. It’s a huge benefit when lead times and visual quality matter.
Let’s talk about fabrication. What makes KYDEX® so process-friendly for manufacturers like RapidMade?
It plays well with almost every toolset. You can vacuum or pressure form it into tight contours. You can brake-bend it after forming for custom angles. You can CNC it like wood, with standard tools, and you’ll get clean edges without chipping or flaking.
Membrane pressing is another big one. KYDEX® wraps beautifully around complex cores. It allows you to build seamless furniture, kiosks, and panels that look monolithic.
And we love miter folding. We can route V-grooves, heat fold at a tight radius, and create seamless corners without fasteners or adhesives. That’s a major upgrade over laminates.
What this means is we’re not limited by material our design options stay open all the way through production.
How do you manage post-processing and finishing for KYDEX® parts?
That’s one of the great things about KYDEX® it doesn’t need a finish. The surface is already colored and textured during extrusion. You don’t paint it. You don’t need protective coatings. What comes off the mold is what gets shipped.
We can do additional steps like printing, engraving, or adding embedded graphics but the core material is ready as-is. That eliminates variability, VOC emissions, and post-cure delays.
We also use edge routing, branding cutouts, and embedded fasteners where needed. Since the color runs through the sheet, exposed edges are still clean and consistent.
What’s the lifecycle performance of KYDEX® in high-use environments?
It’s excellent. KYDEX® resists scuffing, cracking, staining, UV exposure, and chemical degradation. We’ve had parts installed in high-touch locations retail, transit, medical that still look new after years of service.
It handles cleaning agents that would destroy ABS or discolor metal. And since it’s inherently flame-rated, there’s no degradation in safety performance over time.
All of that means lower total lifecycle cost. You’re replacing fewer parts, doing less maintenance, and not worrying about refinish cycles. The return on investment is clear, especially in regulated environments.
How do you see KYDEX® evolving in the next few years?
There’s growing interest in sustainable formulations post-industrial content, reduced emissions, recyclable grades and KYDEX® is ahead of the curve on that. It already complies with RoHS, REACH, Prop 65, and ISO 14001.
We’re also seeing more interest in integrated design. Think branded surfaces that are also structural—logo cutouts, textured finishes, gradient gloss levels all formed directly into the part. KYDEX® supports that kind of vertical integration.
It’s no longer just a material for interiors it’s becoming a platform for form, function, compliance, and identity.
What are the current trends in supply chain and product development that make KYDEX® a smart choice?
Speed and modularity. Product developers need to go from CAD to shelf faster than ever. KYDEX® lets us skip the painting, the laminating, the bonding all the stuff that slows traditional materials down.
It also supports modular design. We can produce nested, scalable systems panel kits, field-replaceable skins, snap-fit assemblies. They help guarantee reliable performance and make it easier to scale across the globe.
KYDEX® works in both low- and mid-volume runs, which means you don’t have to commit to massive tooling just to get started. It’s a great material for prototyping and pilot scaling.
Final thoughts what’s your advice to a designer evaluating KYDEX® for the first time?
Don’t treat it like “just another plastic.” It’s an engineered system. If you bring it in early, you can eliminate multiple production steps and hit all your mechanical, regulatory, and aesthetic goals at once.
We always tell clients—start by thinking about where your product lives, what it needs to survive, and how it needs to look. Then we match the grade, form factor, and process flow to that outcome.
It’s not about bending plastic. It’s about building better parts with fewer compromises.
Design Smarter. Build Faster. Perform Longer.
RapidMade is your full-service fabrication partner for KYDEX® solutions from engineering-grade thermoforming to branded, production-ready assemblies. Whether you’re designing medical devices, retail kiosks, aircraft interiors, or public infrastructure, we help you select, shape, and scale the right material for the job.
Ready to get started? Reach out at info@rapidmade.com or visit RapidMade.com to kick off your next project today.
Certified. Scalable. Built to Perform.
