Home / News / The TPU foam market is characterized by a wide range of applications
TPU Foam Sheet is a versatile, lightweight material that can be easily shaped and cut to suit different design requirements. It is highly flexible and provides impact resistance, making it an ideal choice for a wide range of applications. It is available in a variety of colours and textures, as well as printed with logos and graphics to meet individual design needs. This innovative material is a game-changer in industry, providing high performance, low cost solutions for businesses striving for innovation and efficiency.
The TPU foam market is characterized by a wide range of applications, from footwear to automotive interiors. It is a flexible and durable material that can be molded to fit the contours of various products, such as shoes, sports equipment, or bags. It also offers a number of other advantages, such as its ability to withstand harsh environments and its light weight.
In addition, TPU is an environmentally friendly material that can be produced using a closed-loop manufacturing process. This allows manufacturers to reuse the material and reduce waste. Additionally, it is recyclable and has good tensile strength and elongation at break. This is due to its excellent energy return properties, which allow it to absorb and then re-release a significant amount of energy during use.
TPU is a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) that can be fabricated by mixing polyols with diisocyanates, which are chemical building blocks that provide the reactivity and curing properties required to form polyurethanes. The most commonly used diisocyanates are Toluene Diisocyanate (TDI) and Methylene Diphenyl Diisocyanate (MDI).
A key challenge faced by the TPU industry is finding a way to produce TPU foams that are both affordable and durable. The production of TPU foams is labor intensive and requires a long time to complete, making it difficult to compete with lower-cost alternatives. TPU also has a relatively high melting enthalpy, which makes it difficult to process.
Moreover, the TPU foams with a medium expansion ratio exhibit a higher ball rebound property than those with a low expansion ratio, suggesting that they have higher foam resilience and energy absorption than those with a low expansion ratio. However, the TPU foam prepared with a low expansion ratio shows a hardness value similar to that of a TPU sheet which had not been foamed, indicating that the cell expansion is incomplete at this low pressure and temperature.