SPEAKER: CRISTINA SAIZ ARROYO AND ALBERTO LOPEZ GIL

Thermal conductivity, mechanical properties, surface quality, or acoustic performance, among others, strongly depend on cellular structure characteristics such as average cell size, cell size distribution, anisotropy ratio, cell wall thickness, fraction of mass in the struts, and gradients in cellular structure. This applies to a wide variety of foams: rigid or flexible PU and PIR foams, XPS, XPO, expanded beads, rubber foams, biobased foams, etc. However, the accurate characterization of the cellular structure of these materials is not a simple task. In this webinar, CellMat Technologies, with more than ten years of experience in this area, will share its knowledge and approaches on this critical topic for foam manufacturers and end-users.
On the one hand, we will explain how to characterize both the gas phase and solid phase using advanced and highly accurate approaches based on X-ray tomography and scanning electron microscopy. The analysis of the solid phase is often disregarded but it is key to be able to understand important differences in physical properties. We will show you some examples of this issue in this webinar. On the other hand, we will also explain how to characterize the cellular structure using less complex instruments such as digital optical microscopes. The very short times needed, and the simplicity of the methodology allow us to use this approach in a production line for quality control. In this webinar, we will show you several examples with different types of foams, and we will introduce new updates to this methodology- AUTOCELL- which is already being used by several foam manufacturers across the world.