History of the Memory Foam Mattress
Memory Foam mattresses are the new generation quick recovery mattress. Quick recovery means that they get back into their original shape much quicker after a weight has been put on them than regular mattresses. It has the basic components in a regular mattress but with added chemicals its density is increased.
Memory Foam mattresses were first developed by a group of chemists at NASA’s Ames research centre in the Late 1960’s. Their main objective was to make a material due to which the astronauts do not feel immense pressure of the gravitational force during lift-off. The main challenge was to make a material without any pressure points providing the astronauts with extra cushion.
This newly formed material also absorbed body heat and adjusted according to body weight while adapting to any movement made by the person putting weight on the material.
The first generation memory foams were a complete failure. They broke down chemically after two years. Their production emitted gases and were not durable and broke apart after very little use. Due to this they were not used inside an aircraft.
Their immense failure caused NASA to sell the technology of the memory foam as it no longer had any use to them. The technology was bought by Europe’s leading foam makers ‘Fagerdala World Foams of Sweden’. They wanted this technology to be perfected for their consumer use so they started experimenting on their newly bought technology immediately.
Once ready these foams were launched in Sweden and received a lot of praise. Seeing their huge success, the company launched their mattresses in North America. There too they got similar results. These mattresses were used in medical fields too. While a patient needed to lie immobile on a mattress for a very long period of time, the memory foam allowed blood flow to the entire body due to its unique design.
Due to the huge success of this memory foam other foam companies in United States, Europe, china and Middle East also began to work on their own versions of the memory foam wanting to create similar mattresses and pillows.
In the beginning the memory foam was very expensive and a normal person could not get his hands on it due to the high rates, but eventually it became much cheaper and was now in almost every household being used as a pillow, a mattress, a cushion etc. Also almost all the materials requiring a foam in a hospital now had memory foam in it, for example, wheel chair cushions, hospital beds etc.
In the 2nd generation of memory foams the companies started using an open cell structure to help the user to breathe properly. In 2006 the 3rd generation foam was introduced. Also known as Gel memory foam, it consisted of particles of gel fused with visco foam to lessen the amount of body heat trapped, which was a problem in the previous two versions of this mattress.
The modern memory foam mattress has had a long journey filled with ups and downs but it has evolved into something that’s helping so many people all over the world.