Estudio de la influencia de la formulación química en las propiedades físico- mecánicas de las espumas flexibles de poliuretano producidas por una empresa dedicada a la fabricación de colchones en la ciudad de Cuenca

Abstract

This research was of a quantitative experimental type, and its objective was to establish a relationship between changes in chemical formulations and the physical-mechanical properties of flexible polyurethane foams (PUF). A 23

factorial design was employed, where the selected factors were amino catalyst (AM), organometallic catalyst (OE), and silicone (SI). The selected levels involved variations of ± 0.2, ± 0.3, and ± 0.5, relative to the standard PUF formulation with a density of 10 kg/m3. The experiments were carried out following the company's testing procedures. These experiments included the evaluation of physical-mechanical properties such as density, with an average of 11.32 kg/m3 ± 0.69 kg/m3; resilience, with an average of 27.52% ± 3.28%; hardness B, with an average of 186.33 N ± 37.40 N; tensile strength, with an average of 50.19 kPa ± 2.39 kPa; elongation at break, with an average of 63.55% ± 11.32%; and fire behavior, with an average of 3.42 mm/s ± 0.20 mm/s. Consequently, it was observed that higher levels of AM and OE improved density and tensile strength, and the interaction of AM and OE directly affected elongation before rupture. The formulation of experiment 5 (P5) proved to be the best, as it allowed for the maintenance and improvement of all the properties mentioned above. It was then subjected to industrial testing to verify whether the same property results were maintained. Consequently, it was found that the highest variations in properties were 12.81%. This formulation led to a reduction in the amount of AM and SI and an increase in the amount of OE, potentially resulting in a reduction in production costs