How is Foam Shipped Economically?

With memory foam becoming more and more popular for mattress use, and people utilizing the internet to order products more and more frequently, one of the most asked questions isn’t about foam itself, but how it gets to where it needs to go. Knowing the large dimensions of the mattress being ordered can make somebody cringe when they consider the cost of shipping a product that size, but over the years, companies have refined and perfected ways of packaging foam as efficiently as possible. One method, primarily used for bulk orders by major product manufacturers, is compression rolling with heavy machinery. The other method, and the one you’re more likely to see buying individual mattresses or pillows, is vacuum packing.

This method of packing foam is one of those rare things that’s as simple as it sounds. A product is attached to a vacuum that removes air from a sealed package which reduces the size. The reason this works so well with foam is because the majority of foam’s structure is air. And with all the cells in open-cell foam being interconnected, you can pull air out of an entire form from a single seal.

While it may seem like it would require a substantial industrial vacuum to get the compression foam needs to economically ship, many companies don’t need a vacuum any more complicated or powerful than a store-bought shop vacuum. And once the foam is reduced by as much as 75 percent, it is wrapped, packaged, and send on its way, in the most cost-effective way possible.