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Our Production

Human resources and technology to focus on the future

Pelma Production

Flexible Polyurethane Foam Production for Comfort & Bedding, Packaging and Interior Soundproofing

Flexible Foam is a material which allows to create everything. There is no sector today in which Polyurethane Foam is not used: from the construction industry to the automotive industry it is often used as an acoustic insulation.

Flexible Polyurethane Foam products

Flexible Polyurethane Foam products

We produce Foams with endless possibilities of “density and hardness” depending on uses and customer needs.

A wide range of Flexible Polyurethane Foam products with different physical-mechanical characteristics and multiple processes: from the raw block to the semi-finished or finished product

Among other things, our Polyurethanes are used to make products for: Bedding (mattresses and pillows), Comfort (sofas and armchairs), Protective Packaging and for interior soundproofing.

thermofresh

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climafresh

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the foam

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everflex

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allsoft

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safety

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slowemotion

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soffio-plus

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natura

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touch

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Production Techniques

How Flexible Foam is produced

Polyurethane Foam is produced by combining different raw materials.

The production of Flexible Polyurethane Foam follows several steps according to a precise production process that ends after 72 hours, once the curing is complete.

Impianto di Produzione Poliueretano Espanso

Traditional Production Technique

The process consists in five steps:

  1. Raw materials conditioning
  2. Measuring out of raw materials;
  3. Mixing of raw materials;
  4. trigger reaction;
  5. Growth verification

The three main raw materials for the production of the Flexible Polyurethane Foam are POLYOL, TDI, and WATER. The water is the essential element for life and it is also the reagent that allows the Foam to expand and rise.

The raw materials are accurately conditioned and the different components are carried to a variable temperature between 20°C and 25°C that is the best processing temperature.

Polluting and harmful elements such as CFC/HCFC and METHYLENE CHLORIDE have been banished from the process.

The raw materials, which are arranged in the respective production tanks, are dosed inside the mixing head in which the reaction is triggered.

From the mixing head the foam reaches a tank from which it overflows onto the conveyor belt. The reaction (polymerisation reaction) takes place in 1/3 minutes; during this time the Foam block reaches the fixed dimensions.

When the Foam block gets out of the tunnel, it is cut into variable length boards that are laid on the curing area.

During the 72 hours after the production process, the Polyurethane reaction ends and the long-blocks are stored in warehouses

After that, the product can follow two different paths: it can be cut into 2, 3, 4 mt blocks and be sold as a rough block or it can be brought in the cutting department of the company.

Dettaglio impanto VPF Pelma SpA

Variable Pressure Foam Technique

Within our Company, the production technique used has been improved thanks to the use of an innovative foaming method: VPF (Variable Pressure Foaming)

Pelma is the only company in Italy that employs this exclusive technology. In this way the quality has improved continuously and the specifications of the product can be constantly tested during the process.

Our technology is mainly based on vacuum and pressure foaming process variables. This prevents from using external uncontrollable agents (such as CFC/HCFC, Methylene Chloride, CO2…).2,obtaining an expanded material with only water, which is totally eco-compatible and recyclable. The chambers of VPF system can be considered as closed reactors where the pressure can be constantly fixed and controlled.

VPF gives the possibility to obtain a wider range of products, creating new Foams with improved properties.

Among the different qualities of VPF method, the high environmental compatibility is to be mentioned. The tunnel in which this process takes place is completely closed and the gases generated during the foaming reaction are collected inside the plant and are cleaned by active coal filters before being released in the atmosphere.

A respectful production of the environment, a research aimed to improve the physical-mechanical characteristics and a versatility that allows it to respond to the most different fields of application, make Flexible Polyurethane Foam a material increasingly linked to our daily life.

For this reason, and thanks to the constant development over the past 60 years, Polyurethane foams have proved to be a reliable product, safe and totally compatible with the environment.

Main Benefits

  • Process based on continuous foaming
  • Consistency of production
  • Controlled atmospheric conditions below or overpressure (VPF)
  • No auxiliary blowing agent
  • Environmental friendly
  • Easy to use
  • Less skins: less waste and higher yield
  • Improved physical properties

Cutting Technologies

Polyurethane processing

The Cutting Department, in line with the company philosophy, makes use of computerized high-tech machineries and equipment and prototypes of world value. Controlled by skilled workers, these particular machineries are able to offer reliable and adequate answers to the different market demands

In its different applications, Flexible Polyurethane Foam is normally used in sheets or rolls of various thickness and other semi-finished products with multiform and often complex geometry. For this purpose, the blocks coming out from the warehouse are submitted to a “manufacturing” phase consisting in cutting and/or shaping the material according to the profiles required by the downstream use.

All these operations are made by vertical or horizontal cutting machines, single or in series, which are disposed on horizontal lines or on circular carousels.

The Polyurethane block is initially trimmed by removing the “peel“, the most superficial part which has a compact and irregular skin.

Later the block is divided into pieces of different sizes according to the typology of the products to be created, which can be submitted to a shaping that allows to reproduce in section different drawings that correspond to obtainable specific ergonomic performances.

Polyurethane Foam cuts

All Horizontal Horizontal Contour Cutting Vertical Contour Cutting Continuous Rolls Convoluting Excavation