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Natural sponges, or sea sponges, represent some of the oldest of all living creatures. Long before chemically engineered, machined foams came on the market, man was hunting the warm Mediterranean and Pacific oceans for the elusive skeletons of these fascinating sea animals, to be dried and used as cosmetic, cleaning and bath sponges.

Although they have largely been replaced by manmade cellulose products, it is still possible to buy natural sponges from UK foam exporters like us at Technical Foam Services, though as with all natural resources it’s essential they are harvested responsibly. Sea sponges take many years to grow, and in the past enormous harm was done to fragile marine environments by over-zealous fishermen.

Sea sponges only grow in shallow, warm waters, where – like coral – they come in many fantastic shapes, sizes and colours. They tend to lose this colour as they dry, though people feel this is part of their attraction. Some sponges are branched like coral, while others are small, flat and round, or tube shaped.

Like manufactured open cell foams, sponges have a porous structure. Lacking any specialised organs, and living their entire lives attached to rocks on the sea bed, they have a soft, spongy skeleton covered by a leathery skin. Seawater is pumped through open pores and nutrients and oxygen extracted, the excess leaving the body through large holes called oscula.

Amazingly marine natural sponges have been in existence for around 700 million years, and have changed little in that time. Cellulose sponges are cheap and popular – but nothing beats the feel of the natural product on the skin. Hence their popularity as bath sponges and cosmetics applicators.

A hundred years ago, cleaning was a real chore, and in many cases it was only armies of servants that could do it effectively. Luckily, these days, cleaning has become a breeze – and this is in part thanks to the advent of foam cleaning products.

Cleaning sponges are so effective for relatively simple reasons, and it is mostly down to their unique capability for absorption that they are ideally suited to cleaning applications – from gentle cleaning to rigorous scrubbing. Of course, it is also the malleability of foam that means that it can be cut to any particular size, such as foam blocks ideal for scouring pads.

At Technical Foam Services we are committed to offering the very best in terms of all our products, and therefore as well as tough cellulose foams we also offer natural sea sponges, in fact Technical Foam Services are the largest importer and distributor of natural sea sponges in the whole of the UK!

But what is it that makes a natural sponge from the sea so special? Well natural sea sponges have been created with all the tenderness that only mother nature can offer and therefore sea sponges are unrivalled in terms of their softness, which means that they offer a uniquely luxurious way to bathe.

Of course, sometimes a gentle natural sponge just will not do the job and that is why we also offer tough cellulose sponges – ideal for many applications from scrubbing the sink to washing a car!

There are two main types of foam. Some foam manufacturers make both, some only one. We supply all kinds of foam for all kinds of applications, from novelty items to bath and cleaning sponges. Different foams can be used in medicine, packaging, mattresses, toys, insulation, and countless other places all around us. If you look around the room, you’ll probably see at least one or two products that contain some kind of foam.

Closed and open cell foams are produced using different methods, and with very different (in fact, often almost opposite) aims in mind. What they share is a flexible base material and a construction method that introduces lots of small bubbles into that stuff, which is almost always a plastic of some kind. The size of the bubbles varies from those that are almost too small to see, to those big enough to stick your thumb into.

That’s not the differentiating factor though: what sets open and closed cell foams apart from one another is the connectivity between the bubbles. Open cells have open paths between them, closed cells don’t. In practical terms, that means that you can use open cell foams to soak up liquids, while closed cell foams are waterproof and won’t absorb water even when punctured or otherwise damaged. So one kind is used to make cleaning sponges and the other is used to make buoyancy aids for canoeists, to give two of the many examples. We could list plenty more for both types of foam, but most foams are of the closed cell variety.

Natural sponges have a long history, both in evolutionary terms and in relation to human activities. The creatures that provide old-fashioned natural bath sponges begin life in the oceans. As a family of animal species, these sea sponges have been around for hundreds of millions of years, more or less unchanged. Humans have only been around in a form we’d recognise for a scant half a million years.

For hundreds of those years – maybe even thousands – they’ve been harvesting and using sea sponges. The foam piece we’re familiar with is actually a sort of skeleton, or as close to it as the soft-bodied sea sponge comes. Instead of having a hard, calcareous skeleton like people do, the flexible, squishy sea sponge animals have a fibrous framework, which can be dried and used as natural sponges.

These days, the use of natural sponge is restricted to the bathroom and sometimes the kitchen. However, in the days before man-made foams, sea sponges provided many of the functions now filled by artificial products. They were used to pad helmets for the military, filter water for towns and cities, and in painting, decorating, and pottery.

As bath sponges, they are particularly good, because the soft but hard material is great for washing and provides an exfoliating action too. There is a tactile sensation to the natural sponge that artificial methods are yet to fully replicate. That’s why we provide a range of different natural sponges, as well as many different plastic foams and foam-related products.

As well as supplying foam and rubber solutions to businesses, Technical Foam Services also supply natural sponges for use in the home or in an industrial setting. Sponges are used in a vast array of cleaning activities, from gently washing a tiny baby to scrubbing the kitchen floor, and Technical Foam Services offer a wide range of sponges in every imaginable shape and size to suit practically any purpose.

Leading foam manufacturers Technical Foam Services are one of the biggest importers of natural sponges, but what exactly makes these sponges ‘natural’?

The natural sponge is gathered by divers or dredging ships, and are prised from the sea floor and later dried in the sun. After any impurities have been washed out of the natural sponge, it is ready to be sold as a wholesome natural product. Until the mid-1700’s, the texture and appearance of the natural sponge lead many observers to believe that they were plants. Zoologists eventually dismissed this theory, re-classifying the sea sponge as a simple multi-cellular, bottom-dwelling animal called Porifera, which means ‘pore-bearing’ and refers to the many tiny openings or holes visible on all sponges. There are three additional sub-species of Porifera: the Calcispongiae, the Hyalospongiae, and the Demospongiae. The natural sponge is found in every ocean and can thrive in not only shallow waters, but the deepest regions of the seas. Scientists have identified approximately 5000 species of sponges thus far.

These sponges are extremely invigorating for cleaning uses, as their soft surface is gentle to the skin. At leading foam suppliers Technical Foam Services, we supply natural sponge sourced directly from the sea, so you can be sure you’re receiving genuine quality every time.

If you are the sort of person who likes to keep the home sparkling clean, you will probably be aware of the so-called magic sponge. This is manufactured from melamine foam, and this material’s unique properties have earned it widespread recognition in the consumer market over the past few years.

Recognised for its magic performance in removing dirt and stains across a wide range of domestic applications, the market for melamine products for the home is increasing at a rapid rate.

As one of the leading foam suppliers and innovators in this field, Technical Foam Services is the supplier of many household brands and high street retailers, including Oven Pride and Halfords, who market it as The Great White Sponge.

This is just another example of how we at Technical Foam Services reach into just about every aspect of peoples’ lives with our products, which range from basic rubber and foam solutions right through to engineered foam, Jiffycell and Visco memory foam. We provide engineering solutions to businesses all over the world who use rubber and foam in their products, and even if you need foam cut to size, we can help with this as well.

Melamine is described as magic due to its ability to remove a range of marks and spills without the need for harsh detergents, but in reality there is no magic involved in this process. Melamine sponge foams have a unique structure that differs from other foams, such as polyurethane and polyethylene foams, and posses unique cleaning and absorption characteristics, without using powerful detergents or other chemicals.

A Magic Sponge such as the “White Magic Extra Power Sponge”, as sold by Technical Foam Services, is the ideal sponge for all of your cleaning needs, and is built in such away to make it both super-absorbent and highly durable.

A magic sponge is made from a special kind of foam called melamine foam, which makes it ideally suited in removing a wide variety of difficult-to-remove stains such as crayon, ink and soap scum. The “White Magic Extra Power Sponge” is a sponge that has been compressed from 3cm to 1.5 cm thereby giving it an inherent durability that makes it as hard as any other rigid foams. It is also shaped ergonomically, and therefore it is perfectly suited in order to be a used daily.

A Magic Sponge is also an open cell sponge, which means that it highly absorbent and can help you with even the toughest the toughest of stains. The “White Magic Extra Power Sponge” also benefits from 10,000 tiny fibres that are finer than a human hair but 10 times stronger than steel.

To get the most out of your magical sponge, remember to use it gently, like and eraser, and don’t use it on sharp edges, which might damage the sponge. Obviously, you cannot eat the sponge and it is also advised that you test it on fragile surfaces so you can be sure that it won’t cause discolouration.

Foam suppliers Technical Foam Services offer you Magic Sponges, which are foams cut to size depending on your specific requirements, to suit any application. Whether you need  cleaning or bath sponges, we offer a diverse range of suitable sponges.

Technical Foam offers a wide variety of bath sponges and cellulose sponges which are perfectly suited to all your cleaning demands, and with top name brands such as “Natural” sea sponges, you can be sure that we at Technical Foam Services, top foam suppliers, only offer the highest quality of bath sponges and cellulose sponges.

Cellulose sponges are great for use, as sponges and are made using only natural materials such as wood pulp and cotton, which means they are the perfect sponge for the environmentally minded as they are biodegradable.

“Natural” brand sea sponges represent the very highest quality of cellulose sponge and make bath time, or make up removal a real treat. Natural sponges are of such high quality, and made from such natural materials that by using them, you have the assurance of knowing that you are being all-natural and environmentally-friendly.

Technical Foam Services also offer a variety of bath sponges, such as sponge pore foams; which are the paragon of “traditional” sponges.  Foam is so effective as a sponge material because it can be constructed to possess a wide variety of densities. This means that foam can be produced of a low density or have an “open cell” structure (its cells have been broken to allow the intake of air or water); thereby making the foam sponge extremely absorbent.

So, why not treat yourself to a high quality sponge from the foam manufacturers at Technical Foam Services? You’ll never want to leave the bathroom again!