Polyurethane, or PU, foams, are used extensively in the form of rigid foams by the building trade for both practical and decorative purposes. PU foams are durable, highly temperature resistant, and generally impervious to the effects of moisture, mould and chemicals. Advanced engineered foam processes can also greatly increase the fire-resistance of PU foams.

As an insulating material, PU foam sheets are among the most effective. Easy to install and to glue to most surfaces, they can also be cut into shape to fit awkward corners. Rigid PU foam sheets are used in such applications as wall fittings, door panels, and roofing. PU rigid foams are also increasingly used for aesthetic applications around the home. A specialist foam producer will be able to generate shaped foams to any size or colour. Since PU foams are easier to mould than more traditional materials such as wood, concrete or plaster; and since PU foam products are considerably more lightweight than those made from other materials; they lend themselves extraordinarily well to the whimsies of interior design.

PU foams are also equally suited to external decorations, given their resistance to the elements. From decorative cornices to columns and domes, PU foams can provide an almost infinite range of machined foam design concepts. What is more, because they are available in a wide range of colours, PU foams can be installed without the need for painting for many years to come.

A Technical Foam Services we can demonstrate the usefulness of different PU foams for your projects and provide a wide range of shaped foams.

Most homes will have PU foam blocks inside their seat cushion covers and some will even use PU confor foams as a mattress. The popularity of flexible PU foams is mainly down to their combination of low weight, high tensile strength, and superior comfort. It is also down to the fact that flexible PU foams will always regain their original shape and buoyancy; in common with all open cell foams, each cell or pocket in a flexible PU foam will always ultimately refill with air following any compression.

It is always important to keep in mind that flexible polyurethane, or PU, foams, whilst ideal for home furnishing applications, also require careful handling and treatment to reduce the dangers arising from their inherent combustibility.

Flexible PU foams are made largely from petroleum-based materials. This high level of petroleum derivatives, coupled with the presence of air in the open cells, makes PU foams highly flammable.

Fortunately, in the UK legislation prevents PU foams from being used in furniture and bedding unless they are firstly treated with fire-retardant chemicals. It is important to note, however, that all these chemicals have to do by law is slow down the combustibility process. Along with flame resistant covers these slower burning PU foams do however provide the victim with much more time to escape. As such they are reckoned to have saved countless lives over the years.

At Technical Foam Services we can advise on the most appropriate fire-retardant foam applications for your needs. We even stock specialist non-burning fireseal PU foams.

There are many different types of engineered foam, each serving particular industrial, domestic and institutional needs. Reticulated foams form just one category of such specialist foams. Reticulated foams are essentially open polyurethane, or PU, foams that have had their pores, or cells, widened to such an extent that there is only a bare minimum of material remaining in the make-up of the cell walls (an incredible 97% of reticulated foam products is in fact empty space).

The vast area of space within each reticulated, dodecahedron-shaped cell, makes reticulated foams ideal for absorbing and holding on to large quantities of unwanted particles such as dust; in other words, reticulated foams are the perfect material for the manufacture of filters. The reticulated PU foams that usually go to make up air filters are polyester foams. This is largely due to polyester’s high level of resistance to heat and UV light (a special flame-retardant version of polyester foam is even available), as well as its inherent strength and durability.

Water filters on the other hand are usually made from a different class of PU foam: polyether foams. This is because polyether foams are highly resistant to fungicides and hydrolysis. Different grades of reticulated foam are designated according to the number of pores per inch (or ‘PPI’); in other words by cell size. These range from a relatively coarse four PPI through to a much finer 110 PPI.

At Technical Foam Services we can advise on the most suitable reticulated foam for your needs, and can supply this foam to the size you require both speedily and at highly competitive prices.

The development of engineered foam continues in the direction of ever-increasing levels of sophistication. This is the case for both open cell foams – those that permit air or liquid to travel both within and away from the foam’s pockets or cells; and closed cell foams – foams which trap the air inside, resulting in a uniform consistency throughout, or even total solidity.

Hydrophilic, or maxi-absorbent, foams, for example, are a highly efficient type of open cell foam. Hydrophilic foams are used in a number of medical and cosmetic applications, as well as in high performance cleaning sponges and cloths.

What is particularly exciting is that the absorbency powers of these foams are now also exploited as a means of obtaining a slow and controlled release of absorbed substances. Applications for such sophisticated ‘hold and release’ foams include facial cleansers and deodorisers.

When it comes to closed cell foams on the other hand, a major and important area of ongoing development relates to the safe and secure packaging and transportation of vital technical or vulnerable items such as those used by the armed forces, hospitals, or museums.

High density, closed polyethylene, or PE, foams, such as plastazote, for example, not only protect such items from the impact of physical knocks, they also insulate against the effects of static electricity, moisture, and UV light.

At Technical Foam Services our expert engineers have all the equipment and experience to continue to explore new applications for open and closed cell foams, and to solve the many varied challenges facing our individual customers.

Different types of foam products, including sponge foam toys and cushion fillers, are rightly taken for granted in both domestic and commercial settings as cheap, safe and durable. At the manufacturing and retail ends of the foam distribution process however, the use, manipulation and storage of different types of foam requires a more considered approach.

The chemical engineering processes that are used to generate foams, for example, are specialist applications that any business should keep well away from unless it is a bona fide foam producer. Whilst the finished engineered foam will be chemically inert, the manufacturing process itself can involve the release of toxic chemicals and gases which need to be contained safely and professionally.

Even once the foams are produced, care still needs to be taken when cutting or shaping the foam blocks, foam sheets or foam rolls that are supplied wholesale. Certain polyurethane, or PU foams, for example, can become toxically volatile when subjected to hot wire cutting. It is therefore always safest to select a foam producer that can cut the required amount of foam to the desired size and shape.

Finally it is wise to try and avoid over- ordering foams and foam products since finding the necessary safe storage, away from any fire hazards (such as those found on factory floors), can prove difficult.

At Technical Foam Services we are a UK foam company that supplies a wide variety of foams and machined foam products, and which can help your business identify the best foam for your needs.

Foams are sometimes mistakenly seen as inferior substitutes for natural materials simply because they are processed in bulk and can usually be purchased at a relatively modest price. This prejudice against foams and foam products is grossly unfair since foams often outperform natural products and can in fact turn out to be the preferred choice of the professional or the industrialist.

In the painting and decorating trades, for example, whilst a mohair paint roller may be chosen for painting a heavily textured wall or an artex ceiling, it will usually be a roller – or a set of paint pads -covered in one of the more appropriate polyurethane, or PU, foams, that turns out to be far more effective at emulsion-coating a standard plaster wall; the PU foams used on rollers and pads are open cell foams which securely absorb up to four times as much paint as a brush.

Another trade in which foam has increasingly come to replace natural materials is vehicle manufacture, specifically bodywork polishing. The highly durable but non-abrasive qualities of specialist PU foams used in car polishing pads have been found to achieve a far more reliable finish than traditional materials such as lambs’ wool.

A final example of synthetic foams being favoured over natural products is the specialist clothing and footwear industry’s preference for rubber foams such as neoprene, PVC and nitrile over more traditional materials for products such as footwear and body protection.

Let our experts at Technical Foam Services demonstrate how specific foams and foam products can successfully improve performance in your chosen applications.

Foams are very flexible, malleable and adaptable, not only in their end applications but also in the various ways in which they can be processed and manufactured. Whenever foams or particular foam products do not appear to make the mark, it is always worth discussing with a reliable foam producer ways in which they can be improved.

EVA foam, for example, one of the dense polyethylene, or PE, foams, is a firm, comfortable, and extremely dirt- resistant foam that, as a floor covering, was once restricted to foam rolls and foam sheets. Today, it is also produced, via machined foam techniques, as connecting shaped foams, making floor laying both quicker and easier.

A more technical success story is that of the development of visco memory foam by NASA in the 1960s. Visco memory foam was created to make life more comfortable for astronauts confined to their space ships. Since then memory foam has developed into a range of what are known as confor foams, all of which yield exactly to the weight and contours of each individual human user. Confor foams are also slow recovery foams; in other words they maintain their perfectly matched body contours for as long as required, thus providing complete bodily support. Today memory foam suppliers continue, through specialist engineered foam techniques, to develop new, improved versions of confor foams.

At Technical Foam Services we fully recognise the untapped creative potential for foam and look forward to working with those who share our ambitions.

Foam is so essential to modern life and so ubiquitous that many people, when looking to purchase foam and foam products, assume they know everything there is to know about this everyday substance. It is, however, strongly recommended that advice is sought prior to purchase, as different types of foam have vastly different qualities and different applications.

Foam is made by creating air bubbles, or ‘cells’, within different substances. The varying nature of these substances, and the different ways in which the cells are produced, results in significant variations across the range of flexible and rigid foams produced.

Flexible polyether foams, for example, are highly resistant to both water damage and to UV light. They therefore make for excellent interior and exterior water filters; and also serve as excellent material for mattresses. Flexible polyester foams on the other hand have a cell structure that is highly efficient at absorbing sound waves, making them ideal for use in headphones and sound-proofing applications.

Knowing how to handle and cut different types of foam is also crucial. Polyurethane, or PU, foams, for example, should not be cut with a hot wire foam cutter since potentially dangerous chemicals can be released as a consequence.

Other pitfalls when buying foam include mistakenly underestimating the required size of replacement foam by basing it on the compressed dimensions of the old foam. This is a common error when, for example, purchasing replacement seat cushion foam.

At Technical Foam Services our experts can advise on the right foam for your needs and can also cut it to any size or shape required.

In recent years there has been growing concern about the amount of packaging used in the retail sector and the implications this packaging has for the environment. Whilst there is no getting away from having to protect items that would otherwise become easily damaged during handling and transportation, environmentally-conscious businesses have found in certain polyethylene, or PE, foams, a solution that goes a long way towards helping to resolve this dilemma.

High density PE foam products, including plastazote and jiffycell, combine firmness with a soft non-abrasiveness that make them ideal for cushioning vulnerable items during storage and transportation. Their relative environmental friendliness however begins at the manufacturing stage, since during this process no carbons are released into the atmosphere.

The environmental protection advantages of high density PE foams continue once they are put into use as a packaging medium. Their combination of density and relative lightness of weight means that with less foam and a lighter product, suppliers require fewer outer packaging materials, fewer transportation vehicles, and less storage capacity; all of which results in less energy being expended.

Facilities for recycling foam in the UK are steadily increasing and high density PE foams are also completely recyclable. It should also be noted that high density PE foams are chemically inert; so much so that plastazote is often used as a safe, protective wrap for the archiving of delicate historical artefacts.

Finally, PE foams do not have to be sourced from overseas; at UK foam company Technical Foam Services, we can supply all your PE foam needs at highly competitive rates.

When selecting foams or foam products for various industrial or domestic applications, it is important to understand the distinction between three essential qualities of foam: rigidity; density; and whether the foam is of the open or closed cell variety. All too often this terminology can become confused.

• Rigid foams are completely solid (think of a life-saving ring buoy at a swimming pool) whereas flexible foams can be manipulated to fit around a person or object (think of a swimming noodle or a diving wetsuit)

• Open cell foams allow air or water to move freely in and out of, and between, each miniature air hole or cell, thus enabling the foam to be compressed or expanded (think of a sponge); closed cell foams, on the other hand, trap air within each individual cell, and the movement of air between the cells is prohibited (think of a padded exercise mat)

• Density meanwhile is effectively a measure of a foam’s weight. The foam inside a seat cushion for example may well be less dense – or lighter – than the contour foams used in certain beds

The crucial point here is that foam can possess any combination of these three qualities. The exercise mat for example is a closed cell product and yet is flexible. On the other hand, certain specialist insulating materials made from polyurethane, or PU, foams are open cell, moisture releasing foam products that are also rigid.

If this appears slightly confusing do not worry as we here at Technical Foam Services can pinpoint and supply the precise foam for your needs.