Transformed and manipulated
of polyurethane and polyethylene foams:
We shape your needs

Thermoplastic foam, as the word says, is a vulcanized plastic. They are derived from plastic, polyurethane, polyethylene. That’s what they call thermoplastic foams.

To understand it simply, I don’t need a scientific formula, but rather a little bit of what it is or what it is used for. To have a little, to know, to have seen it in real life and to know that I have touched it and to know what it is.

Well, polyurethane, in a very simple way to identify it, is the foam that is used to make sofa mattresses, etc., those foams that go inside, well, they are polyurethanes. These types of materials range from very high hardness to very low hardness. So, well, depending on the vulcanization, a very high variety of hardness is obtained.

And then polyethylene are other types of plastics with a different vulcanization. And to identify them, they are basically a high amount of plastics that are used to make packaging, to transport computers, for example, the foams where they rest, televisions, etc.

That little white foam where we support things, well that is a cross-linked closed cell polyethylene, they call it.

From the polyurethane family are normally mattresses, sofas, bed bases, that is, mattress foams, sofa foams, piece foams, etc. Normally they are lined with some type of fabric, something. What it does is that it gives a feeling of comfort when you lean on them.

Yes, yes, to the office, right?

Of course, indeed, what is inside the quilt, what is said. And then polyethylene has a very important part in packaging, that is, above all polyethylene is used for packaging, for special packaging, for packaging, packaging, packaging.

Yes, it is easy, with what you told us at the beginning to recognize, right? Everything is like that. The softness to be comfortable, yes, that’s going to be it. And the other thing is what the packages come with when they arrive so that they don’t get hit, especially more delicate pieces, right? As you said, computers or anything else. Or a washing machine or dishes that always have things there to cushion the blows.

Well, thermoplastic foams, the manufacturing system is different from rubber. They are mixtures that are added. A series of additives are added and they are very liquid masses that are placed in an oven, heated, and have different locations than rubber.

When you say that additives are added, because of course, we associate rubber with the color black, but now when you talk about additives I suppose that these foams can be made of colors, they can be made of anything, because you can add whatever you want, that in rubber it will not be common to make it colored, because it will go for an elastomeric support, it will go for a bridge, because you don’t care about the color, but here they are visible and then they will be used in different colors and different shapes .

Yes, the ease of polyurethane is that it is made in an infinite number of colors, because the elements with which the formulation is made are natural colors, that is, they are translucent, transparent, white, and the only thing you have to add is a dye of the color you want to make it, and that is what the laundry makes us say, so it can be made of many more colors than rubber, and also because of the uses it has, which have to… that is, What needs to be done… they are dedicated more to advertising and things that are seen.

Yes, in the end these polyethylenes and these polyurethanes are things that the client sees in the end, that they arrive at home inside the box, if only to withstand the blows, but they are seeing them, and that does take better care of them.

Well, the foams are thermoplastic, what most manufacturers do is transform them, that is, you go to the manufacturer, who is a gentleman, a European multinational, and you buy blocks, blocks of one size, then the transformed thing is that You take it, you divide it, you cut it, you glue it, you mill it, you glue it, etc. I mean, that’s something that… We manipulate it.

Well, basically in these cases it is the one that best adapts to what you are going to transport, you understand? That’s what decides… In almost all the pieces that are made, how you make it, what foam you use, what foam you don’t use, depending on the shape of the piece, what the client wants to show, whether it is expensive or cheap packaging, etc.

It is the client who sets the rules a little bit and you try to get as close to them as possible within your possibilities.

Yes, I suppose the packaging for a washing machine is not the same as for a computer. So that’s where you’re going to decide if you’re going to put a thickness, another, a hardness, another hardness.

Well, the advantage that thermoplastic foam or polyethylene has is… The first and most important factor is the price, which is infinitely lower than rubber. And then the versatility it has in shapes, colors and then it also gives very good resistance to ozone. And apart from that, many of them comply with FDA food regulations.

That is, they can be handled with food, which is very different from rubber. It is very different from rubber, as these regulations are very demanding for rubber. And much less demanding in the sense of the materials used for plastics and polyurethanes. In other words, these polyethylenes are also used in the food industry to make something in bases or what those hamburger boxes are for or something like that, could they be?

Well, to pack… More than the food industry itself, for example, let’s consider the case that we are in a daycare center, there are children and so the objects they touch have to be… Food, that is, they have to comply with the regulations exactly, that they are not polluting. So, polyurethanes do almost everything for this, you understand? In other words, in rubber it costs a little more.

Come on, in rubber you have to go for silicones, which almost all comply with FDA regulations, but polyurethane itself, by nature, is non-toxic, as they say. That is, it does not produce toxicity for humans, which is why it is widely used.

Yes, more than the food industry, well, that’s what they say, right? Daycare is a good example, when a child puts something in his mouth and can take it away and it won’t be polluting, right? And with rubber it is more complicated.

Well, the most important factors are the density, the thickness, the measurements, that they are good… That is, the product has the measurements that the client requires, the thickness and, well, basically that.

Because, as I have told you, this is not manufactured in Cacesa, it is brought from other factories and then it is made, it is transformed.

So, what you have to insist on is that what you have gives you the ability to adjust very well to the size that the client asks of you and to the densities that the client asks of you, which is the most important thing.

They have already given us some examples of use, but tell us specific clients.

The truth is that the clients, normally, of this type of materials are not large companies, but rather SMEs.

Well, the typical man who makes a sound installation and puts polyurethane so that it breaks the probe and absorbs the sound. It is not transmitted because it also absorbs decibels. Upholsterers, do you understand me? Schools, etc, etc.

In these parts that we all know, from what you are saying, we all assume a little what their useful life is, but from your point of view, from the technical point of view, what is the useful life? I mean, maybe the sofa will last 10 or 15 years, but maybe the material is no longer what it should be, it no longer meets its conditions.

Well, the truth is that these materials, one of the characteristics they have is that they do not withstand much… breakage. So, normally the useful life is… they are short. They are… let’s see, everything has special things, how about that, but oh well.

For example, a bath sponge, how long does it last? Well, if you take good care of it, it will last 3 or 4 months or 5, but if you are handling it, it will last a week.

I mean, and it’s not that the material is bad, but the use they give it affects a lot because there are so many… products that go… to the public. A packaging, well… it can last a long time, or if you break it as soon as you open the box, it won’t last at all.

And I ask you, well, as I ask you in everything, right? I don’t know if you have… although the life of rubber doesn’t have many anecdotes. I don’t know if you’ve had a client here with anything that happened to you, anything special.

Well… well, the truth is that… anecdotes as such, well many times, for example, they are those on tatami who… well, they have arrived at the place and it was not what they wanted. People who don’t know about polyurethane itself, who arrive and expect something else and well, well… you have to eat it and well, some sound installation that has been somewhere like that a little more fun and well, well let’s go more.