Foam skiving is one of the many fabrication techniques we employ at our foam fabrication facilities. It’s a useful technique that allows for foam blocks to be cut with precision and ease without wearing down the materials. This is especially useful for closed cell foams, which can be denser and more difficult to cut in various thicknesses.
What is foam skiving and how can it be used to fabricate foam for your application? Find out the uses and benefits of this foam fabrication technique.
What is Roll Skiving?
Roll skiving is the process of feeding a foam sheet into a cutting machine (called a skiving machine), which uses a large horizontal knurled steel rollers which compress the foam and feed it through an extremely sharp blade to slice the material to the specified thickness. Since the tension of the blade ensures that it doesn’t sag or move, fabricators can cut blocks of foam quickly, efficiently, and cost with precision.
This results in thinner sheets of foam that are all precisely the same length; sheets can be produced with tight tolerances. Roll skiving is generally used with higher density foam.
Alternatively, vacuum skiving holds the foam material flat on a table using an air vacuum process. The table is then passed through a blade. This is generally better for thinner gauges of materials or tighter tolerance applications. It does result in very accurate cuts, but fabrication process can take longer than roll skiving.
The Benefits of Roll and Vacuum Skiving Foam
Using foam skiving as a fabrication technique for our customers provides many benefits to their manufacturing process and materials:
- Precise cutting: from roll skiving to vacuum skiving, foam materials can be cut with tight tolerances, giving you a consistent thickness for your foam pieces.
- Customizability: thicknesses can vary greatly based on your foam needs.
- Efficiency: skiving machines work quickly and make the cutting process very efficient. This can keep turnaround times and costs low.
- Material diversity: skiving machines can be used to cut many different types of foams of varying densities.
- Sustainability: since little to no material is wasted during the process, this is a highly sustainable way to fabricate foam. Less material waste also keeps costs low!
- Smooth edges: skiving blades do not leave sharp edges on foam sheets. This eliminates the need for additional finishing processes that increase production time and labor in the fabrication process.
- Less material residue: sawing foam can lead to dust and material residue. Skiving machines cut cleanly.
Is this fabrication technique right for the foam you need? Let’s find out! Tell us about your next project and we’ll help you find the best solution.