SKIVING

All of our stock planks come in nominal sizes. In many cases a more exact size is needed.In this case we simply skive the material to the requested thickness. A plank has a skin on each surface which is smooth and durable. When one skin is skived off the remaining sheet will curve in the width due to the tension from the other unskived surface. In many cases this is acceptable if not preferred. But in other cases the finish part must lay flat to accomplish a packaging requirement.

Die Cutting

When it comes to die-cutting, you will first need to purchase a steel rule die in order to operate the machine.

A die is nothing more than a special shaped blade like a cookie cutter at grandma's house.The press simply

pushes the blade through the foam to produce the shape just like pushing a cookie cutter through dough.

Die cutting is one of the most efficient ways to create a foam shape. Multiple shapes can be grouped together on a indivdual die. This way each hit creates a multiple piece set. Mutiple sets can be produced every minute which makes the die cutter the work horse of foam fabrication.

When foam is cut with a die cutter the machine compresses the foam which forces the cells in the center of the foam outward before the blades cut through the material. After the machine retracks, the foam returns to its original thickness and shape of the die. The foam edges will be concaved. The thicker the material, the more concaved the edge will be. This is called CONCAVITY. When samples are produced, there is no concavity because the samples are cut with a saw that does not compress the foam. Once the original saw-cut sample is approved the dies are ordered. Once we receive the dies, we create a machine cut sample for approval.Once we receive approval the full job can be run.. See CONCAVITY illustration.

Flash Cutting

The flashcutter is another truly amazing machine. We simply draw a foam part, load its shape into the machine's computer, and the machine cuts everything from that point on. The machine can also determine the best layout to minimize scrap. You can even send us a DXF formatted file with your requested shape and our machine can cut it. This machine is used mostly for prototyping, low volume orders and shapes that require a straight cut edge. It can also cut very large shapes.This saw can cut up to four inches thick, 60" wide and 120" long. 

Most importantly the Flash cutter makes it simple and fun for us to explore mutiple design possibilities to solve the most challenging packaging problems. 

Profile Cutting

Our profile machine can cut specialty desiged contour shapes. A pattern is created and followed by a rotating textured wire blade that cuts the shape from the foam. If we made a simple 6" circle pattern and followed it's path, the machine blade would cut the circle shape creating a 6" cylinder that has the length of the block that was placed on the machine. The cylinders are then removed from the foam shaped scrap cocoon and they are moved to a smaller vertical saw where we cut the piece down to the desired thickness and/or length. The scrap is removed from the edges and the profiles are packaged for shipment. 

ASSEMBLY 

There are vast options when assembling PE parts. When we are attaching multiple PE parts together, we use a thermal seal technique. There are many advantages to this technique. When you use heat to seal a part, there is no leftover residue, and it provides a stronger bond for your part. When possible, we always use heat to seal your parts, however this is only an option for PE parts (not including XLINK). If you want to seal other foams, or multiple types of foams together, we will have to use hotmelt. There are advantages to both thermosealing and hotmelt, it just depends on what you are looking for! 

 At Technifoam we make sure that our assembly department runs efficiently be creating different types of cuts that allows less time to put the part together. We strive on our efficency, but quality is just as important so we make sure to double check parts to ensure the integrity of our parts.