Plastazote Foam: What Is It And Why Should You Use It?

If you’ve heard of plastazote foam before, you’ll know how reliable, durable and versatile the foam material is. If you haven’t, you’re unlikely to know the benefits and vast uses it has throughout thousands of industries worldwide. 

You might even be surprised to hear that most of us use plastazote foam, on a day to day With its highly protective properties, plastazote is a top favourite for protective packaging applications.

In this article, we talk through the basics of plastazote, how it is used and why you should use it in your industry.

What Is Plastazote?

Whilst plastazote is a brand name originally manufactured by Zotefoam, it has quickly become a well-known name across the industry with similar brands. Plastazote is extremely easy to design, shape and resize using CNC routing and CAD (Computer-Aided-Design), which means it can be very easily converted into packaging protection and case inserts.

Plastazote is manufactured from nitrogen cells supported within a polyethylene material – nitrogen is blown into the polyethylene before it is expanded, to maximise the protective features.

The material begins to soften at low temperatures, making it easy to mould without high temperatures using compression or vacuum moulding, which is known as foam conversion services. It can be heat moulded (between 85 – 140 °C) to conform to any shape. With its ability to be easily heat moulded, there are even more uses for plastazote to suit a variety of requirements and needs.

What Are the Benefits of Using Plastazote?

There’s no surprise that plastazote is so widely used with the great extent of benefits the material possesses. At PottertonPacs, we use plastazote as foam inserts for many of our equipment cases, with the ability to very easily bond the foam onto other fabrics, plastics and metals. Here is a summary of the main benefits of using plastazote:

Easy to form and shape

With plastazote being easy to cut, form and shape, it’s an extremely adaptable and versatile material which can be used for thousands of purposes. 

Easy to clean

Plastazote is exceptionally easy to clean and disinfect, making it suitable for medical, healthcare and fitness use.

Weatherproof

Plastazote is able to withstand all weather conditions and is water repellent and buoyant. It has excellent impact absorbing properties, meaning that any equipment protected by plastazote is protected and kept safe from water damage.

High durability

With its high durability and hard-wearing features, the material is able to withstand substantial amounts of wear, pressure or damage. It can even withstand chemicals with its chemical resistance and stability.

Variety of choices

As plastazote is man-made, it’s designed to suit a range of different needs and requirements. For this reason, plastazote comes in a range of high-performance options, as well as a wide range of densities and colours.

With the range of densities, bespoke levels of protection can be engineered into the plastazote to widen its suitability to protect any kind of product or equipment.

Multiple uses

Plastazote is versatile, durable and easy to form. As a closed-cell foam, liquids and gases are not easily absorbed into the foam. This means that plastazote is non-toxic and safe for handling, therefore can be used for multiple purposes. 

Protective

A main benefit of plastazote is the protective nature of the material, which is why it’s used for packaging inserts. It also offers great thermal insulation to protect against warmer and colder temperatures.

What Is Plastazote Used For?

Due to its waterproof and high durability nature, plastazote is used in a range of different industries worldwide, including the medical, electronics, military, retail and sports industries.

With the material being supportive, it’s often used for cushion packaging as protective custom foam inserts. Whilst plastazote is also waterproof, it’s one of the most suitable materials for protective packaging, particularly for electronics packaging that needs protection in transport and from any external liquids that could potentially damage the electrical equipment.

Within the medical industry, plastazote is used for protecting medical devices, medical equipment and surgical instruments. Plastazote is the preferred material by millions of medical professionals around the world, due to the material being easy to clean and disinfect.

Due to its high durability and waterproof nature, it’s often used in swimming pools for swimming floats and pool toys, as well as more extreme conditions in the form of surfboards, buoyancy aids and waterslide mats.

With the foam having the feature of being easy to clean and water-repellent, plastazote is commonly used in gyms for exercise mats, with the material available in a range of colours and densities. 

Plastazote is also used for lining in sports trainers and helmets, with its maximum support and high-impact threshold.

Upgrade Your Equipment Case Today

PottertonPacs are leading suppliers of custom made protective custom bags and this includes protective bags for use within the medical industry.  Working broadly within a wide range of industries for numerous years we have gained vast experience which has enabled us to develop various product solutions for doctors, nurses, healthcare and emergency service professionals. We know the importance of providing reliable and protective custom bags and we can assure you that our products are made to extremely high standards to ensure you are getting a quality product solution. Get in touch and we can talk through a solution for you today!