Introducing mattresses of soft Polyurethane foams

Full foam mattresses are mattresses with cores consisting completely of foam. As in many other industries, the evolution of mattresses is enormous and impressive. This also applies to this group of mattresses. To provide insight into the various polyurethane foams we will explain the various characteristics and how they originated below.

The history

At the start of the 20th century a process for the conversion of oil products into synthetic foams was discovered and developed. In the beginning, they were polyesters, but the ongoing search for better characteristics, comfort, durability, safety and environmental friendliness enabled the foam industry to develop better qualities. Today, there are various qualities in the market that are used in mattresses for various reasons.

Range of many types and price categories

The group of full foam mattresses is sometimes incorrectly categorised as cheap and simple. The wide range means that foam mattresses can be offered in all kinds of comfort classes and for every budget. In the following explanation we will try to give a good impression of the qualities, terminology, properties and technology.

The damask fabric as mattress cover

There are a great many mattress cover variants. We can offer them all. Damask/Towelling/Double fabric/PU coated (protective covers). Take a look at our Projecta Plus mattress covers read more…

Polyether mattresses

Polyether is one of the oldest high-quality foams. Its elasticity is a frequently used characteristic, and it is one of the cheapest types of foam. Polyethers are available in various densities and hardnesses. The densities are often expressed in SW (specific weight) and hardnesses often in kPa (Kilo Pascal).
As extremely low SGs are sometimes used in the mattress industry, the type designation of polyether is also occasionally associated with inferior qualities. This is the reason why the term ‘comfort foam’ is sometimes used for the better qualities. With this, the intention is to indicate that this is a good and comfortable quality of polyether.

Significance of specific weight for foam qualities

Specific weight stands for the mass of a material. The specific weight of a foam quality has a great effect on the durability/quality of a mattress. The specific weight of a foam quality is expressed in kilograms per cubic metre. For example, an SG25 stands for a cubic metre of foam for which 25 kg of raw materials were required. So, 40 kg of raw materials were required to produce 1 m3 of SG40 foam. If you were to place both qualities next to each other under a microscope you would see that the cell walls of an Sg40 are thicker than an Sg25. That means that these cell walls are stronger and have a more durable quality. So you can say that an SG40 last longer than an SG25.

Why so many qualities?

There are situations in which basic quality is insufficient. Consider properties such as safety, fire safety, resistance to bacteria, breathing, etc. Variants of the standard polyether were developed to respond to this. In general, you can say that the following groups of soft polyurethane foams were developed over the years.

Polyester (no longer used as mattress quality)
Polyether
Memory foam (HR/ High Resilience-Polyurethane)
CM Polyether (Combustion Modified Polyurethane)
CMHR (Combustion Modified High Resilience)

We would be happy to give you advice about our full foam mattresses