10 Things to Consider When Buying Extruded Foam Board Manufacturer

Tips On Selecting a Good Foamboard Supplier

Sign businesses large and small will use a foam core substrate at one point or another. Rigid, durable and economical; foamboards are ideal sign blanks and are easily cut and routed to create highly customized signs.

Read more

What to Look for In a Good Sign Foamboard Supplier

When selecting a foam board supplier the following items should be key considerations:

• What is the foamboard manufacturer’s production capacity?
• Do their sign blanks show consistent care and quality?
• What are the foamboard supplier’s replenishment times?
• Is their foamboard competitively priced?
• What are their payment terms?

Can’t I just use regular bulk foamboard?
Why do I have to buy from a sign foamboard supplier?

You could, buuutt…

Not all foam is created equal. Foamboards manufactured specifically for the sign industry are normally the result if a higher quality manufacturing process and materials. While UV printers can print on almost anything, we want quality results for our customers; this begins with a quality substrate base for your inks.

Signfoam Is Better

UltraBoard foam is considered Extruded Polystyrene (XPS), and possesses a more complete and rigid cell structure than standard Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam, commonly used in cheaper packaging and insulation. Learn more by checking out our article Extruded vs. Expanded Foamboards– What’s the Difference?

Sign Foamboards Have Facers

Another reason why you may not want to print on just any foamboard is that sign foamboards have different materials applied to their surface. We refer to these materials as “facers”, as they are applied to the face or surface of the foamboard. Facers can consist of many different kinds of materials including papers and plastics. Facer materials may even have certain chemical treatments applied to achieve different printing effects or properties that aid in production.

Shop Multiple Foamboard Suppliers

Don’t be afraid to shop around; not only for pricing, but quality and service as well.

When contacting your local sign distributor it’s always a good idea to have the following items ready in digital format for emailing:

• Business License
• Estimated monthly volume of materials you use or plan to use
• EIN Number and Tax ID

XPS foam board, or extruded polystyrene foam board, is one of the common insulation boards. Extruded polystyrene boards are widely used in the construction industry. Because of their perfect closed-cell structure, XPS foam boards are outstanding in terms of insulation, water absorption, compressive strength, life expectancy and other performance.

Goto Decai to know more.

However, there are many types of extruded foam boards in the market and countless manufacturers engaged in the R&D of extruded polystyrene boards, which makes it very difficult for buyers to choose. So in this article, we will talk about important factors to consider when selecting high-quality XPS foam boards.

Color&Smell

Generally speaking, there are many kinds of colors of extruded foam boards on the market, such as black, white, and blue. But the color actually doesn't affect the quality of XPS foam board, as long as it does not turn grey, black or dark.

In addition, we can break the polystyrene foam board and smell the odour, high-quality XPS foam board is basically odourless after breaking, while poor quality one will be affected by raw materials and other additives, producing a pungent plastic smell.

Foam Cell

The main use of extruded polystyrene foam board is energy saving and heat preservation, which is mainly due to its continuous and uniform closed cell structure on the surface.

When you observe the board, you will find that there are many foam cells on it, which are for better concentration of heat, to absorb the heat from the air evenly and distribute it evenly. So the more uniform these foam cells are, the better the quality of the extruded board will be.

Compressive Strength

Since extruded foam boards are often used for floor heating insulation, basement maintenance, road base insulation, airport floor insulation, etc., the compressive strength should not be neglected. Usually, XPS foam board for floor heating requires a compressive strength of 200KPA or more. Therefore, when buying an extruded plastic board, you must make a clear inquiry from the foam board supplier, and then select according to your needs.

Besides, we can also use our fingers to press gently to test its compressive effect. Under normal circumstances, the press marks of high-quality extruded panels are basically invisible to the naked eye, but inferior extruded panels have obvious dents when pressed, so you need to be more careful when selecting.

Raw Material

High-quality XPS foam boards are made of polystyrene resin as the raw material, and it is important for buyers to note whether the product is made of this material when selecting it. Many people will tend to choose a lower-priced product, but that kind of extruded foam board is usually of poor quality and is likely to be made of used boards.

The extruded foam board made of polystyrene resin not only has uniform and dense foam cells and outstanding insulation effect, but also has a long life span of up to 50 years or more.

Feininger is a professional XPS foam board manufacturer. Our products adopt world-class production lines and are manufactured in strict accordance with the ISO system. Feininger XPS foam boards have superior thermal insulation, good moisture resistance and high compression resistance.

The company is the world’s best Extruded Foam Board Manufacturer supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.