Bayer MaterialScience offers improved mattress foam

Hoping to assure consumers of a good night’s rest, Bayer MaterialScience LLC has introduced new viscoelastic foam formulations for bed mattresses.

Unveiling new formulations for its Softcel™ VE-1100 polyol, the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based polymer developer notes consumers’ growing demands for foam mattresses that more quickly “recover.” Bayer MaterialScience’s viscoelastic polyurethane flexible foams are highly compressed and meet 90 percent compression-set targets, as opposed to the 50 percent compression set requirements of initial viscoelastic foams. This helps meet users’ desires for foam mattresses that do not create body impressions that are slow to recover.

Consumers also desire foams that dissipate heat better and yield a “cooler” sleep. Additionally, the new formulas create foam mattresses that more accurately replicate the firmness experienced at a mattress showroom, a performance that can be affected by different temperatures at home.

“By reformulating VE-1100 with polyols currently in most foam manufacturers’ plants, we are able to meet these new requirements,” says. William Gower, technical service representative for Bayer MaterialScience’s Raw Materials Flexible Slabstock Applications Development Group. “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.”