Sponge Slabstock Foaming Machine-Flat-Top Foaming Machine with Balanced Pressure Plate and Drop Plate

Based on the UBT high-pressure foaming machine with a balanced pressure plate, Hennecke developed a new flat-top foaming machine called QFM. This machine integrates the Maxfoam process, utilizing the principle of foaming downward on a drop plate. The QFM model was officially introduced to the market in 1992. It combines two technologies—high-pressure and low-pressure—achieving a clever fusion of their advantages. The process flow is shown in Figure 1.

The QFM foaming machine combines the advantages of the balanced pressure plate method, which ensures a well-formed rectangular foam block cross-section, with the benefits of downward foaming on a drop plate, resulting in a smoother top surface and lower overall density. It retains the TDI high-pressure metering pump and a high-pressure mixing head, using a throttle block to control the mixing chamber pressure for foam cell size adjustment. Other component metering systems utilize low-pressure gear metering pumps. This design preserves the characteristics of high-pressure foaming while effectively reducing metering system manufacturing costs and enhancing market competitiveness. A schematic of the QFM foaming machine is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1: QFM Foaming Machine Process Flow Diagram

Figure 2: QFM Foaming Machine Schematic Diagram

The use of the material flow distribution adjustment device eliminates the need for the mixing head to move back and forth, ensuring more uniform liquid distribution on the flow plate. The mixing head can move along the foaming machine axis to adjust the pouring position, adapting to different foaming system initiation speeds. The drop plate’s tilt angle is automatically controlled and adjusted through the computer control system. As a result, the foam blocks initiated on the drop plate have a relatively smooth top surface, and the balanced pressure plate only needs to apply minimal pressure to achieve a well-formed rectangular foam block.