History About STROFOAM CARVING

Foam is made by mixing a number of chemicals and adding a "gassing agent" that makes bubbles that make the plastic cellular.

Foamed plastics are heated from within- the heat comes from the chemical reaction. When the block of foam has finished rising, it's called a bun of foam.

Theoretically, there are as many different kinds of foam as there are different kinds of plastics. But practically speaking, there are only three families of foamed plastic used for sculpting.

 Styrofoam

 Styrofoam, actually a brand name of Dow Chemical, is the insulation foam, usually blue or pink, that you see on the sides of buildings under construction or renovation. This foam is technically known as extruded polystyrene. The other Styrofoam is a white packing foam made of tightly packed beads of foam. That's why this expanded polystyrene, or EPS foam, is also known as beadboard foam. Both types of Styrofoam come in a variety of densities and can be sculpted using hot-wire tools.

 Rigid urethane foam

Rigid urethane foam is the foam that you'd find at the bottom of a floral arangement. It comes in a variety of colors and densities. The lower densities (3-10 lb/cubic foot) can be sculpted with conventional sculpting tools. The higher densities (up to 60 lb!) are more easily fabricated using routers, dremels and milling machines. Hot-wire tools cannot be used on rigid urethane foam!

Flexible foams

Flexible foams comprise the third category and include Polyethylene foam, which you'd find on the bottom of your sneakers and flexible polyurethane foam, used in mattresses and nerf balls.

The foam, or combination of foams, that FOAM PROPS uses for a particular project depends on several variables, including the desired size of the object, budget constraints and the amount of detail involved.