How Is Egg Crate Foam Made?
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Polyurethane
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Egg crate foam is most often made from polyurethane. This artificial type of foam is created via a fairly complicated process that involves the mixing of chemicals along an assembly line. The chemically reactive agents are kept in separate steel tanks, and then passed through pipes. As they pass through these pipes, a heat exchanger raises the temperature so that all the necessary chemical reactions take place. At the end of the pipe the liquid polyurethane is sprayed out and as it reacts with carbon dioxide is dries and expands, becoming a sheet of foam.
Cutting
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To form the sheets of polyurethane foam into egg crate foam, it first must be cut. This part of the process requires that the sheets be dry and fully expanded, ready to be altered. A single sheet of polyurethane foam is cut in half, but as it's cut, it is also deformed. This deformation, with the valleys and ridges being created as the foam is cut, produces two sheets of egg crate foam that fit together to make a single, regular sheet of foam. Ultimately, though, producing egg crate foam leaves behind no wasted materials, since the entire original sheet was used.
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Properties
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Once egg crate foam has been cut, it's usually brushed off, cleaned up, and then sold for a variety of different uses. Egg crate foam is often used as a mattress topper for a bed because of the way the egg crate shape provides extra support for a person's sleeping form. For this particular purpose it also doesn't matter which way the foam is facing; it will supply extra support with the egg crate side facing up or down. Egg crate foam is also used as insulation, and it's been utilized for acoustic properties in studios.
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