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Integral Skin Urethane Foam Molding

For example, methane foams are infinitely variable from soft and flexible via semi-rigid to extremely rigid grades. The molding technique, apart from the manufacture of slab stock, has gained increasing importance in urethane foam production. Since it is possible to modify the foam properties and the end-products in many ways, there are almost unlimited possibilities to vary the manufacture of molded foam articles.

Semi-Rigid Urethane Foams in the Automotive Industry

The application of urethane foams in the automotive industry has been rising from year to year. The reason for this rapid development lies in the possibility of formulating the urethane foams to almost any desired modulus from flexible types via semi-rigid to extremely rigid varieties. This permits the foam’s use for a wide variety of applications, with its low density affording the weight savings required in the automotive industry. A review of all foam applications in the automotive industry would go beyond the scope of this paper. The production processes will not be discussed, except as is necessary for understanding the subject in its entirety.

Production of Urethane Soling Materials

HE WORLDWIDE SHORTAGE of soling leather and the demand for exact soling, Twithout which shoe manufacture by machine is not possible, were the reasons for the development of synthetic soling materials being pursued so fervently in the past. Nowadays rubber soles have a dominating position in practice. In addition to rubber, thermoplastic PVC has also gained a footing in the industrial production of soles, however on a fairly small scale. A disadvantage common to both materials is the high specific gravity of approx. 1.2-1.4 g/cm3 . In the past, many different experiments have been carried out to reduce the weight of both rubber and PVC soles. The method used to achieve this reduction