There is an abundance of foam materials on the market, and each one has properties better suited for its specific end-use – be it energy absorption, comfort enhancement or component protection, amongst others.
From highly flexible elastomeric foams to exotic, crushable varieties made of more rigid materials and all those in between, having foams tested is a crucial step in product design to ensure you select the right material for its intended application. Use the right foam and you will optimise the product’s lifespan and functionality while meeting client specifications and regulatory requirements.
Bespoke foam testing, performed by specialists
Whichever the specific end-use your foam is required for, we offer a comprehensive testing service tailored to those needs. We have a long track record in industries spanning from automotive and aerospace to household and consumer goods, so we understand the requirements of our customers and optimise our service accordingly.
Working from a network of state-of-the-art laboratories across Europe, North America and Asia, our foam testing experts bring a high level of precision to their material characterization services, evaluating aspects such as:
- Density
- Hyperelasticity
- Compression set
- Tensile strength
- Stress relaxation
- Rate dependent compression testing
- Thermal properties (conductivity, specific heat, thermal expansion)
- Accelerated ageing
- Tear resistance
We test a vast array of foam materials, all under the main ISO and ASTM standards, as well as DIN, EN and UNE. The exact standards to which our tests adhere include, but aren’t limited to:
- ASTM D695 (ISO 604)
- ASTM D575
- ASTM D412 (ISO 37)
- ASTM D638 (ISO 527)
- ASTM D5024 (ISO 6721-4)
- ASTM E1530
- ASTM E1269
- ASTM E831 (ISO 11359)
- ASTM E8
- ASTM D792
- ISO 1183
- ISO 527-5
- ISO 14129
- ASTM D3039
- ASTM D5026
Digital Solutions for foam characterization and data management
Our material testing experts in our US-based lab, Applus+ DatapointLabs, operate through an intuitive e-commerce platform called TestCart, where we offer an extensive array of individual tests as well as 179 TestPaks, each with a standard 5-day turnaround.
We also offer software solutions for managing all of the material data, like Matereality, which helps companies build easily accessible data collections to accurately represent the properties of their materials.