Best Foam Mattresses

Memory foam mattress gives you comfortable and peaceful sleep, but do you know how it is made? The manufacturing process of memory foam involves cutting or molding the foam in specific shapes. Flexible and rigid are two types of foams. Flexible foam has an open cell structure and is able to form high and low densities. Memory foam is made of flexible foam. Rigid foam has closed cell structure and prevents movement of gas. Therefore, it is used in insulation, refrigeration etc.

Memory foam is either made from latex or polyurethane, however, polyurethane is widely used. Polyurethane is made by mixing, polyol, polyisocynates and water and some other chemicals. Polyol and polyisocynates when mixed with water creates an exothermic reaction thus resulting in the formation of polyurethane.

Additives are used in some chemical reactions in order to sped up the reaction of polyols and polyisocynates. Tin and amines are used for this. Blowing agents are one of the additives which form gas bubbles inside the foam. Surfactants control the size of the bubbles. Surfactants are wetting agents that decrease the tension of liquid surface. Some other additives like the cross-linking agents may be used along with coloring materials, flame retardants, chain-extending agents and fillers. The process of polymerization may last from several seconds to 5 minutes on an average.

Liquid chemicals are sent to the manufacturing unit ad stored in huge storage tanks. When there is a need, the chemicals are pumped into smaller tanks which are heated later on. There are metered pumps installed which monitor the amount of chemical fed into the mixing tank. This is the place where the chemicals mix and react.

The components are then poured into a conveyor belt and then the foam starts to rise and cure.
Below the conveyor belt, an automatic saw slices the foam into pieces of around 12 feet long. Then the foam is set to rest at room temperature for almost 12 hours in order to cure properly. However, the foam is not ready to be stacked yet as it cannot withstand any weight yet. Once the curing is done, a second saw cuts the foam in desired dimensions.

The leftover foam is not discarded. There are various ways by which polyurethane can be recycled. The foams are reused for making cushions or carpet backs. In order to do this, the scrap is shredded into small flakes and then bound together to form sheets. Another way to recycle is by fragmenting the excess foam and mixing it with polyol blend and then making use of it.