Articles #5

Comparisons of Foam Types & Quality

by: Ray Keong

Most of us know what foam is but we probably don't know that much about it. Foam means expand or blow as defined by standard English dictionary.

Foam has been used for many things over the years, and sometimes is expanded, like the white polystyrene insulation. Sometimes its extruded, which gives a more dense material also used for insulation but also for packaging, and more interestingly foam has become a major component of radio controlled or RC model airplanes / aircrafts.

There is a huge technological world dealing with polymers, plastics and foams. The development of techniques that lead to more uses for foams and plastics represents a serious amount of research and development funding from all the major commercial producers of plastic products.

Properties and Uses of Foam Material

Essentially foam comes from polymer particles, plastic that has been heat treated, and then reformed using a range of industrial processes. Some of the foam types and their uses are described below:

- Polyurethane: is generally used in packaging, filling for dog beds, mattress toppers, and costumes. This is a low quality and after much use will depress in certain areas.

- High Density foam: is generally used for mattresses, furnishings, and in camping and boating products.

- Evlon foam: is also described as Lux foam. This is used for better quality furnishings and mattresses.

- High resilience foam: is very boyant and used in boating and higher quality furniture.

- Latex rubber foam: is a very popular type of foam for mattresses and pillows as it is non-allergenic and very long lasting.

- Supreen foam: is used mostly for IT products as well as packing and sound proofing. This foam is a dark grey color.

- Rebond foam: this type of foam is used for outdoor furnishings, and will withstand extensive usage without losing shape.

- Memory foam: it was developed by NASA for use in the space shuttle seats, and has since become a popular but relataively expensive type of mattress which helps keep the spine straight during sleep.

- Closed Cell Foam: this type of foam doesn't absorb water, doesn't biodegrade, it floats and is not affected by petrol products. It is used in covers for hot tubs, in high impact gym equipment and is very strong.

These are just some of the very common types and uses of foam. In the developed countries there is probably no one person who throughout the normal day, will not come into contact either directly or indirectly with at least one type of foam. Generally, we use various types of foam material is in our homes, our furnishings and our places of work and play.

In recent years, foam material is very popular to the RC and model aircraft building industry, because of certain advantages some of the foam materials have over the conventional balsa-wood model aircraft construction material. The types of foam material which are widely used for building foam model aircrafts are: (1) Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) foam, (2) Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam, and (3) Expanded Polypropylene (EPP) foam types.

Author Resource Info

Ray Keong is a Foam Model and RC Aircrafts enthusiast who maintains a Model Aircraft information website dedicated to it.

Go To Model-Aircrafts.com

Principal Foam Materials for model aircrafts.