Indentation Hardness of Sponges and Foam (IFD Test)

As the most common polymer material in life, sponge is widely used in various packaging products. As well as elastic materials for shock absorption, anti-friction applications, such as shoe soles, tractor tank track pads.

The sponges are suitable for different scenarios, and the required characteristics of the sponges are also different.

The choice of sponge depends on its density, resilience, indentation hardness, fire protection standards, etc., and can not choose color. For example, sofas mainly use sponges and springs, and sponges are divided into several types. There are many grades. Nowadays, high-density sponges are generally used. Generally, the finished products are difficult to see and can only be felt by trial sitting. There are divided into thick and thin, soft and hard which we usually meet. The type and hardness of the sponge, the thickness of the sponge is divided into three types: thin, medium, and thick, among it divide into hard and soft.

1. Thin (below 1.0mm-1.2 mm)

2. Medium (below 1.2mm-1.7mm)

3. Thick (below 1.7mm-2.0mm)

4. Extra thick: full attack type; sponge hardness: 30-35° soft sponge 36-40° neutral sponge 41-45° attack, pull with 46~55° full attack type 56~ (hard sea cotton)

The indentation hardness of the sponge is called IFD in the international, it is tested under standard ASTM D3574 and ISO 2429, ASTM and ISO standard also descrip different test procedure of it.

ISO 2439 Method A, B, C, D,E

ASTM D3574 Method B1, B2, C,E, F

Different sponge products have different requirements for sponges. For this reason, the XHL-04A indentation hardness tester (IFD Tester) produced by our company can be widely used in testing indentation hardness according to different standards, it is also suitable for testing sponges and foam’s other parameters, such as tension, peeling...etc, the related test standard will be ASTM D2724, ISO 2411, ISO 3386-1, ISO 1798.

If you have any questions on IFD Tester, please send us an inquiry.