Urethane Foam Insulation
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:02 pm
In a separate thread (http://www.eaglesinternational.net/foru ... foam#p2579) it was suggested that urethane foam breaks down after a few years. That really bothered me.
The urethane family is very stable and quite inert. It is used for a ton of products including shoes, windshield glue, automotive paint, and we used it for our Harley belts at Gates. I had not heard of any issues with product life. Indeed, urethane foam has been the product of choice in the high end RV market and industrial trailers for many years.
I sprayed my truck conversion several years ago. Some of the spray got on the outside. I was told that it would break down in a year or two (efforts to remove it proved fruitless), because of UV exposure. I had that truck for several years, and the overspray never broke down.
I did considerable searching today and the following are some sites that suggest urethane insulation (sprayed or sheet) is very long lasting.
1) http://www.eaglesinternational.net/foru ... foam#p2579
2) http://www.bpmcontracts.co.nz/sprayedurethane.html
3) http://www.stevesurethane.com/faq/
I did quite a bit of searching for problems using words like "life" "breakdown" "Walmat" etc. and did not find any issues.
I then did a search for urethane foam and "trailers" and fournd this site: http://refrigeratedtrans.com/fleet/trai ... _together/
This site would suggest that urethane is still the universal insulator in commercial trailers.
I wonder if the Walmart trailer issue involves some other foam product? Homes have a cellulose based spray and I am sure there are others.
So, I thought I would bring this back up on a new thread and see if others have heard of any problems. This is mostly academic for me, as I will probably never have a situation where I can spray our bus, but I know a bunch of you are headed in that direction.
Jim
The urethane family is very stable and quite inert. It is used for a ton of products including shoes, windshield glue, automotive paint, and we used it for our Harley belts at Gates. I had not heard of any issues with product life. Indeed, urethane foam has been the product of choice in the high end RV market and industrial trailers for many years.
I sprayed my truck conversion several years ago. Some of the spray got on the outside. I was told that it would break down in a year or two (efforts to remove it proved fruitless), because of UV exposure. I had that truck for several years, and the overspray never broke down.
I did considerable searching today and the following are some sites that suggest urethane insulation (sprayed or sheet) is very long lasting.
1) http://www.eaglesinternational.net/foru ... foam#p2579
2) http://www.bpmcontracts.co.nz/sprayedurethane.html
3) http://www.stevesurethane.com/faq/
I did quite a bit of searching for problems using words like "life" "breakdown" "Walmat" etc. and did not find any issues.
I then did a search for urethane foam and "trailers" and fournd this site: http://refrigeratedtrans.com/fleet/trai ... _together/
This site would suggest that urethane is still the universal insulator in commercial trailers.
I wonder if the Walmart trailer issue involves some other foam product? Homes have a cellulose based spray and I am sure there are others.
So, I thought I would bring this back up on a new thread and see if others have heard of any problems. This is mostly academic for me, as I will probably never have a situation where I can spray our bus, but I know a bunch of you are headed in that direction.
Jim