Foam Rubber Products：Types, Qualities, And Benefits

Foam rubber is a durable material made from a variety of polymer and elastomer blends that produce some of the most versatile and unique materials in the foam world.

Neoprene is a medium weight, durable material that is a foam rubber available in a variety of styles. The three main types include chloroprene rubber (CR), styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), and ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer (EPDM). These different blends create subtle variations in the material, each with its own set of performance characteristics and optimal applications.

Due to the lack of blending, the simplest and "purest" form is CR foam rubber, which is the oldest of the three. This material is durable, but not to the same extent as some blended forms that have been formulated with additions to enhance performance properties. Nevertheless, this material performs well in seals, bearings, and gasket applications because it is resistant to water and many oils and fluids.

 Colorful Rubber Foam

SBR is a blend of monomers styrene and butadiene, developed during World War II to compete with natural rubber and make up for its short supply. Advantages over natural rubber include better resistance to water, organics, and abrasion, as well as better flex and tear resistance and tensile strength.

Foam plants use blended EPDM rubber as their neoprene product. This monomer formulation has excellent moisture and temperature resistance for gasket and insulation applications. It is highly resistant to weather, sunlight, chemicals, oxidation, and petroleum derivatives, as are similar formulations, but it also includes ozone resistance, a quality not found in all other materials. 

A very consistent foam rubber, this closed-cell foam is cut into sheets as thin as 1/8 inch or as thick as 2 inches and is available in conventional and high quality. These rubber sheets are even used for roofing and to help collect rainwater because it is a non-toxic material. EPDM also has a cost advantage over CR neoprene by using a more affordable material in its compounds.

Gymnastic rubber is another widely recognized high-density foam rubber product. These durable black foam sections are often seen as mats or padding on school gym floors or fitness floors in health clubs. Fitness rubber products are based on a similar type of neoprene that has a butadiene rubber formulation but also includes nitrile rubber (NBR). The material stocked by the foam factory is polyvinyl chloride nitrile rubber or PVC/NBR.

These dense, flexible foam rubbers have many applications beyond sports flooring uses. Fitness rubber is often used as kneeling and camping mats because of its ability to act as a hard surface foam pad while still providing enough stability and strength to prevent the user from bottoming out and bouncing. Its insulating value keeps people warm on the ground like a sleeping mat and allows it to be used for building insulation because the insulating properties it provides take up relatively little space.

Foam rubber offers a range of services, from money-saving and practical insulation to recreational and interactive sports mats. Differences in formulation allow many different products to share core properties while being customized for specific jobs. The benefits of foam rubber can be applied to all of their applications, and their specialization makes each one stand out as an individually useful material.

Huamei specializes in the production of rubber foam insulation materials, glass wool products, extrusion polystyrene insulation board (XPS), and other thermal insulation products. 

For more information about any of our products or to receive a quote today, please contact marketing@hbhuamei.com.