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Understanding The Talalay Process For Latex Mattresses

Latex mattresses are made up of the natural sap from the tropical rubber trees. It is particularly derived from something called the hevea brasiliensis of a rubber tree, and as such, latex holds many intrinsic characteristics which make it the best material available to make a mattress. Latex has properties like being soft, comfortable and at the same time resistant and of a strong nature to hold up weight and volume. Latex is one of the only natural materials available today which would naturally mould its shape to contour to a body which lies on top of it.

This way, it provides great support to the person lying on top of a latex mattress. Latex also comes manufactured in such a way that its mattresses have small holes which act as pores to allow air circulation around the mattress. This would keep your mattress more fresh and clean in the long run. It also keeps your mattress resistant to moisture and heat as it allows them to escape through the pores from time to time with the air circulating around it.

The talalay process is basically the process of producing latex foam to be placed into mattresses, and this process is eco-friendly and basically green for the environment. It is an interesting and very unique way of producing latex foam for mattresses, and in this article we will take you through the talalay process of making latex mattresses.

Compounding

Compounding is making a combination of different liquid substances like latex, other soaps and agents to cure and smoothen down rubber, in a machine that acts as a container which is temperature controlled. This will allow all these different substances to blend in together nicely, along with the temperature which would be regulated to allow the different substances to stay below their boiling point and above their melting point. This way you have a smooth and homogenous mixture to be used for the next step which would be moulding.

Molding

Once the mixture is well mixed and kept in a consistent temperature, the next step which is moulding can begin. Once the mixture is ready, it is transferred to something called a pressroom where it is mixed back and forth to make it into a volatile and bubbled mixture. Then it is passed on and injected onto something called the pincore mould, which has the small pores allowing air circulation which we spoke about earlier. The mould is then vacuum sealed to allow no air inside. When the vacuum seal takes place, all air is extracted out of the mould so that the pincore mould only has latex inside forming into a foam structure.

After the mould is ready, the temperature is ready to be changed. The mould is frozen to a very cold temperature which is below the freezing point of water of zero degrees Celsius. Such a freezing process is very specific to the talalay procedure. Freezing helps the liquid particles of the mixture from settling to the bottom and separating to their different components again.

This way, the latex foam which is forming comes out to have a very consistent structure and it is homogenous and evenly spread throughout. Once the freezing is started, carbon dioxide gas is allowed in to help the foam gel into its structure. Finally, after the freezing process is over, immediately the temperature is changed to make it very hot to allow the latex foam to be cured and to form into a baked solid structure. But things don’t end here yet!

Washing

After the latex foam is formed, it is removed from the mould and then placed into a machine which would wash the latex. This is usually a conveyor belt which brings the latex foam core into a washer to help remove the soap substances and the rubber curing agents which were added on in the first step of compounding. This washing process is done by using only pure water, so there are no harmful chemicals used as detergents to help remove the substances.

Drying

After the washing takes place, the latex foam has to be dried. Thus the latex foam core is transferred onto another conveyor belt from the washer, and then is passed through a dryer which would do the job. The drying would not just remove the excess moisture off the latex foam, but would also help to cure the latex better as the drying would provide an apt temperature for that to happen.

Testing

Once the latex foam is ready, it definitely has to undergo some quality control. Not all latex foam mattresses made through the talalay process end up perfect, and we would need to spot which of such latex foam needs to go to the bin before it is sent for sales. The latex foam is mainly tested for its consistency to check if it is evenly made and if it is good for use to meet the requirements and standards. After passing this, the latex core can be made into smaller pieces to fit to the measurements of a typical mattress and then can be sent out for sales.