How foam is made

Many people think that foam is made in sheets at various thickness' i.e. 1", 2", 3" etc etc. that though is not exactly true. Foam is made in huge blocks. In the UK those blocks are made in an automated, continuous way and are then sliced into smaller blocks approximately 2 metres long, this though is quite difficult to see close up so we have managed to find a video of a smaller block being made.

As you can see and the closest analogy we can think of, is that foam is manufactured like a loaf of bread and when customers ask us how thick we can cut it we say it is like asking a baker how thick his slices of bread are. When the block has been made (and most of the blocks are around 40"/1m thick) they are then cut with a large horizontal knife called a splitter. This knife can be set at any depth although it works best when the block is being cut in one go as the weight of the foam helps to ensure a more accurate cut. We have blocks split into the most popular depths we are going to require i.e. 1", 2", 3", 4", 5" & 6". Any depth though is possible so if we have an order in for an unusual depth a slice will be taken off a block at that depth. Once the slices have been take off the block the end result is a sheet approximately 2.4m x 2m (94" x 80"). Those sheets are then cut to customers cushion sizes. You can see that the blocks are only about 2.4m/94" long so any cushions required longer than that have to be bonded together or the job is redesigned to take two smaller cushions that will cut from a sheet.

All of the foam we buy at foamcushion.co.uk is made in the UK. We buy all our foam from the two biggest foam manufacturers in the UK; Carpenters and Vita Foam. We find both of these manufacturers do very similar grades of foam, so for instance the grade we sell as high/firm can be sourced from either of the manufacturers. Also very handy is that both manufacturers dye there foams very similar colours, this helps considerably, for instance if we are looking for the grade we sell as RX Flex we know it will always be a grey colour whether we have bought it from Carpenters or Vita Foam.

Due to the size of the blocks and the ability to be able to bond foam together you can see that there is almost no limit to the size of foam we can supply.