Bayer improves mattress foam formulations

Bayer MaterialScience LLC, Pittsburgh, Pa., is introducing new formulations for its Softcel™ VE-1100 polyol to answer consumer demands for comfortable, high quality foam mattresses that recover faster and dissipate heat better. This polyol is capable of making a wide range of TDI-based viscoelastic foam grades at relatively high index.

Viscoelastic polyurethane flexible foams have are used in many different applications. To meet growing applications like bed in box and viscoelastic toppers, there is increasing demand for higher quality viscoelastic foams and densities outside of the original high-density range. These two applications are highly compressed and must meet 90 percent compression set targets, significantly higher than the 50 percent compression set requirements of initial viscoelastic foams. Due to the nature of the compressed product, the foams also need to have faster recovery.

Viscoelastic foams made with the new formulating techniques are able to achieve high airflows, better tear strengths, better compression sets, fast viscoelastic recovery and generally better physical properties overall, says William Gower, a Bayer technical service representative. In addition, reformulating the foams eliminates certain chemicals, which helps OEMs meet requirements from customers, certifying agencies and government regulations.

Source: Bayer MaterialScience