Sponge and Foam Gasket Materials
From garden kneepads and couch cushions to life-saving medical filters and high-precision aeronautical seals - foam and sponge are pervasive in our lives and in our economy. For more than four decades, Blaylock Gasket & Packing has been providing sponge and foam products to every industry imaginable.
SPECIAL NOTE: Every sponge or foam offered by Blaylock can have adhesive backing or PSA added.
Over the years, we’ve worked with hundreds of sponge and foam materials, creating:
- Gaskets
- Enclosure Seals
- Weatherstripping
- Air, Water & Dust Filters
- Cushions
- Pads
- Packaging
- Sound Reduction/Soundproofing Products
- Insulation
- Anti-Vibration and Shock Absorption Materials
- EMI Shielding
And so much More
Understanding Sponge and Foam Materials
Sponge and foam materials offer low density and more forgiveness in pretty much every application. For example: a sponge rubber would take less compression to seal, compared with regular rubber. A polyethylene sponge would weigh much less than its plastic counterpart.
A few terms you may find in the sponge and foam universe:
What is Density in Sponge and Foam: In simple terms, how soft or firm a sponge is. Denser foams are often stronger, but not as soft and forgiving. Often expressed in pounds per cubic foot or PCF.
What is Compression Deflection in Sponge and Foam: Expresses how well or to what extent a material resists force. In turn, it also describes how much pressure it takes to seal. Think of it as how much of a fight your sponge puts up. The softer the sponge, the lower the compression deflection number.
What is Compression Set in Sponge and Foam: This result expresses how spongy a material is. A low compression set number indicates a material that will return back to its original form after experiencing compression. A brand-new couch cushion would have low compression set. Contouring foams would have high compression set.
What is Tensile Strength in Sponge and Foam: Imagine grabbing both sides of a pillow and pulling apart as hard as you can. If it tears easily, it has low tensile strength. If you pull with all your might and it does not rip, that would be high tensile strength. Expressed in PSI, tensile describes how much counter force it takes to rip a product.
What is Elongation in Sponge and Foam: In short, stretchiness! Elongation describes how much a material will stretch before it rips or tears. For example, 125% elongation would say that once stretched to 125% of it’s original size, the material is a risk for tearing.
There are scores of nuances when it comes to selecting a sponge, but pretty much every sponge under the sun can be characterized as having open or closed cell structure.
Contact Us for More Information
Reach out today to request details on specific Viton® gasket and sheet material needs, or if you require further technical data. We’re here to help with all your questions.
What is the difference between Open and Closed Cell Sponge & Foam?
Open Cell: These sponges and foams have open or broken cell structures. The cells are often bigger, with walls that are not enclosed. Filtering sponges are frequently open cell. Open Cell Sponge structures are often expressed in PPI or “Pores Per Inch”. The tighter the cell structure, the more filtering properties. For example, a 30PPI sponge would be a terrible water filter as pretty much everything bigger than a pinhead would pass through. On the other hand, a 60PPI sponge would make a pretty good dust seal, as the tight structure would prevent passage.
Open Cell Sponges are often way softer than their closed cell counterparts. They also offer unique cushioning – in layperson’s terms they are more squishy or pillowy. They are also way more absorbent. Examples of open cell sponge usages would be: seat cushions, filtering, kitchen sponges, mousepads and makeup sponges. Don’t be fooled, some open cell materials make great sealing products as well. It’s all about cell structure.
Closed Cell: These sponges and foams have tight or closed cell structure. The cells are often smaller with enclosed walls. Most sponge gaskets and seals are closed cell. Their tight cell structure makes them far less permeable and absorbent. White most open cell sponges are soft, the spectrum on closed cell material is broad. And while some closed-cell materials are quite soft, materials can also be very dense, almost as dense and rigid as some rubber materials.
Closed cell sponges are open expressed in density, with simplified downs to some range of: extra-soft, soft, medium-soft, firm and extra firm. Most weatherstripping is closed cell. Foam gaskets on a food canister would likely be closed cell as well. Your white foam cup at a fast-food restaurant is closed cell as well. Coffee from an open cell foam cup would be a bad idea.
What do all these sponge specs mean?
The elastomeric sponge industry uses specification callouts to simplify the way a sponge is described. Our team has been working with these specs for years, so don’t worry if they don’t make sense. You may come across sponge spec callouts like:
- ASTM D1056
- ASTM D 6576
- MIL-R-6130
- AMS 3195
These classifications are often followed by a string of numbers that express what type of material you need, density and tensile rating – even down to things like fungi resistance. We will be glad to help you decipher these numbers.
You may also run across other ratings and requirements like:
- UL 94- a flammability rating
- UL-50 – enclosure sealing standards
- FDA – whether material is made with food-safe ingredients
Whatever requirements you need – our team is ready to help you comply.
How to pick the right sponge?
Our team is glad to work with you to find a solution for your application. In addition to cell structure, considerations include:
- Temperature
- Weather (many sponges are rated for UV, ozone and fungal resistance)
- Material being sealed
- Whether material is going to be a seal and how often sealing area will be opened
- Whether UL requirements like enclosure or burn rating are required
- Specs required: Mil-Spec, FDA, etc.
- Compression needed to seal
- Material rebound or “return-to-form”
- Shelf life
- Adhesive backing
- Thickness
What types of sponge & foam are available?
There are thousands of varieties of sponge out there, and the below list is by no means exhaustive. These are some broad categories we work with, and each category is customizable to exactly what you need. We stock miles of foam products in our warehouses, and we are ready to ship, often on the same day. Put Blaylock’s foam expertise to the test.
QUALIFICATIONS & CREDENTIALS
