Polyurethane molding foam is used in a wide variety of industrial and commercial applications. Divided primarily into two categories, you can either have rigid or flexible molding foam. Rigid foam is used for insulation and flotation applications. Flexible foam is used mainly in the comfort and packaging industries.

Like any other foam, molding foam is produced by blowing gas through liquid plastic, in this case polyurethane. The amount of gas and speed that it is pumped at will affect the density of the foam. Producing foam is a highly complicated process and many factors will affect the final quality of the foam.

Molded Foam Processing

Molded foam is quite simply any process where foam is poured into a mold for a shaping process. The list of goods that are produced this way is far too long to include here but includes decorative items, prosthetic limbs, marine equipment and even boat hulls, laminated building materials, and much more. Special molding machines facilitate the molding process.

There was a time, not so long ago when the molding foam industry posed a threat to the environment due to the fact that Freon was commonly used as a coolant during the molding process. However, this is no longer the case as substitutes have been found for Freon. CFCs have been completely eliminated from foam molding processes.