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.
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.
