New light-weight foam formed products

Foam assisted forming technology introduces new exciting opportunities for improving the properties of current products and to develop totally new sustainable wood fiber based products. The technology allows very porous and thick structures to be produced from wood fibers and it enables the exploitation of new raw material combinations by extending the raw material base. Porous fibre structures can be made of any fibre or fibrous particle blends with or without additives that possess adequate level of bonding or adhesion in wet and dry state. Foam forming offers a sustainable solution to manufacture a wide range of products that can be used e.g. in acoustic control, thermal insulation and in packaging products. Commonly used paper chemicals and microfibrillated cellulose can be used to improve the mechanical properties of porous cellulose structures. Fiber foam can be produced in dilute fire retardant chemical solutions to improve the fire performance of the final product. Critical process phase in the production of thick and porous fibre structures is drying, but combined impingement-infrared drying has shown high drying rate. Shrinkage of the fibre foams depends on the furnish type and can be controlled by applying correct drying strategy. Thick 3D in- and out-of-plane foam formed structures made from cellulose-based fibres are ready to conquer new application areas and replace oil-based materials.