Plastics News – UK government recognizes plastics’ green credentials.

SCA Foam Products is a premier supplier of expanded polystyrene (EPS) and expanded polypropylene (EPP) block. Expanded foam is a versatile material and is often used because it’s lightweight, durable and offers superb impact protection. EPS and EPP are both environmentally friendly materials which are 100% recyclable.

Our foam blocks are available in a number of different materials (EPS, EPP and Arcel) all of which are available in a range of sizes, colours and densities to suit different requirements.

Expanded foam block is widely used for model making, sculpting, arts & crafts and is used in bigger volumes on stage and screen for theatre props and film sets. To help realise concept designs, CAD engineers use foam block for prototype development. Moulded block is the perfect medium for any design house or model maker because it is easy to shape and work with.

What industries use our EPS and EPP block?

• Model Making, Arts and Crafts
• Shops and Department Stores
• Exhibition, Display and Design Companies
• Sculptors
• Automotive Companies
• General Packaging Companies
• Theatre & Media Production Companies

Our standard block sizes are as follows (they can all be found on our online shop):

• 2500 X 1250 X 1000mm EPS only
• 1385 X 1000 X 200mm EPS & EPP
• 1200 X 1000 X 200mm EPS & EPP
• 1000 X 600 X 150mm EPS & EPP
• 1370 X 870 X 370mm EPS only

If the size, colour or material you require cannot be found or you need the use of our in-house CNC cutting service then please contact us and we will be able to quote for any additional work. We are able to cater for a wide range of requests including product packaging, lettering, a giant logo for an exhibition or even prop making for stage and screen.

SCA Foam Products are also available to offer a full in-house design service and transit testing facilities. Please contact us or visit our main website for more details.

The pictures give you an example of the kind of model making and sculpting you can create from a simple block of foam.

Foam Block – Buy Now

For more details on our moulded block or other standard products please contact us.

Email: foam.products@sca.com
Tel: 01604 596800

We’re happy to announce that our Baby Seat the Cushi Tush has won another award to add to its repertoire.

Practical Pre-School, one of the leading magazines for childcare professionals has honoured Cushi Tush with a shiny bronze award in the category of ‘Childcare’.

Practical Pre-School reward excellence in the areas of childcare, books, educational equipment and toys suitable for pre toddler and Key Stage One children. All products tested and awarded are judged on their suitability for use in a professional childcare and educational setting. The bronze award gives the Cushi Tush baby seat a fantastic approval rating of between 70-79%

Entries are judged by childcare professionals in at least two different environments and are judged on their own individual merits rather than in comparison against other products entered into the same category.

This is terrific news giving Cushi Tush its 3rd award in just two years, and a real sign of its future potential in the marketplace.

Manufactured from expanded polypropylene (ARPRO®), the Cushi Tush Baby Seat was designed and developed by SCA Foam Products and has been manufactured at our Specialist Automotive plant in Spennymoor for the last 3 years. The Cushi Tush continues to go from strength to strength and always receives high praise from parents and big smiles from babies who have used the Cushi Tush.

Click here to read reviews, news and find out more about the Cushi Tush Baby Seat.

As a part of the London Festival of Architecture a strange banquet took place back in the summer of 2010 in London’s Clerkenwell district.

The site for this peculiar dining experience was an old abandoned fuel station, the feast was advertised as “The Filling Station” where weary architects and friends could go and re-fuel their batteries after a busy festival.

The twist on this feast was the fact that the organisers wanted to use 420 Expanded Polystyrene Fish Boxes to build a 10 meter long banquet table. This table would not only provide a comfortable surface for people to dine from but it would also house and keep fresh all the food that was to be consumed. JB Packaging (Part of SCA Foam Products) provided the boxes for this unique and one off event with sponsorship from the BPF EPS Group.

Nicola Read and Crystal Bennes the events organisers, created a stunning white dining table using polystyrene boxes as building blocks. The excellent thermal properties of the EPS boxes which are typically used for Temperature Controlled Packaging were put to good use. Ice was packed in selected boxes to keep the seafood fresh and the alcoholic jelly trifle chilled.

Nicola Read said the occasion was a great success and the table looked fantastic, even better than she had envisaged possible.

JB Packaging supply a huge range of temperature controlled transit box solutions, ice packs and sundries to some of the finest food producers and restaurants in the UK. Their boxes are widely used for the shipping of fish, meat, vegetables, fruit and dairy products.

We are delighted to report that the patent  for SupraSkin™ has now been granted on a European basis.

This unique moulding process provides an expanded foam body (EPP, EPS and all Co-Polymers) with a surface layer or skin which offers the following benefits:

• Improved impact protection
• Increased tensile and compressive strength
• Protective covering – abrasion and scuffing resistance
• Moisture resistance
• Hinging capabilities
• Different skin thicknesses available
• Various colour options / Clearly defined lettering and logos

SupraSkin™ offers substantial cost savings as well as performance enhancements.

Utilising a porous membrane, SupraSkin™ allows the passing of steam during moulding resulting in a stronger mechanical bond with better performance. Unlike other skinning processes which bring together two individual products with varying tolerances, Supraskin™ can be created in just one process resulting in substantial savings on manufacturing costs.

 SupraSkin™ has many applications in components and can be used to replace injection moulded outer parts to improve the impact performance of the total unit.

To find out more about SupraSkin and our other material processes click here or call us on 01604 596800.

SCA Foam Products has launched a £1m four-year investment programme at its plant in Spennymoor, County Durham.

SCA announced their approval a significant investment of £350,000, which will be spent this year to provide upgraded plant facilities, security and operational improvements to the manufacturing plant.

Spennymoor will also be the first of six of their foam products plants to benefit from a £500,000 investment in their new computer business system.

The investment will help safeguard the jobs of 53 workers at Spennymoor. Regional development agency One North East has also awarded a Grant for Business Investment of £147,000 to the company.

Jonathan Haddock, Managing Director of SCA Foam Products, said: “We are delighted to have the commitment of SCA and The Regional Development Agency to help secure the future of the Spennymoor plant and safeguard employment in this area.”

SCA Foam Products plant in Spennymoor has remained successful since first opening in 1996 by diversifying from producing packaging materials into the manufacture of components for the automotive industry such as floor levellers, impact protection, headliners, knee bolsters etc.

One North East Director of Business and Industry, Ian Williams, said: “It is testament to the workforce and management of SCA that it has taken the hits of losing large packaging material clients and has still remained competitive in the marketplace.

“I’m pleased One North East has been able to help the company secure its future at Spennymoor and continue build its reputation and profile in the automotive industry.”

The improvements at the Spennymoor plant will allow continued automotive component manufacture and future expansion into new markets. This investment demonstrates SCA’s commitment to automotive customers and the UK automotive industry.

The Grant for Business Investment is part of Solutions for Business, the Government’s package of publicly funded support products offering help to companies to start, grow and succeed. Solutions for Business makes it easier for companies to get the advice and assistance that they need.

For further information on the full package of support, visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast or Tel: 0845 600 9006.

The Grant for Business Investment (GBI) initiative delivered by One North East is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund 2007-13.

Expanded Polystyrene Recycling Exceeding Government Targets

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) recycling has increased again weighing in at over 5000 tonnes in 2009, a figure representative of over 30% of all EPS packaging manufactured in the UK. This is a huge achievement already exceeding Government targets of 25.5% for all plastics by 2010.

Industry experts The British Plastic Federation (BPF) are constantly working to raise the profile and encourage recycling of EPS. Currently most EPS recycling is carried out by businesses recycling the packaging that their products were sent out in.

The recycling tonnage could be higher if recycling banks were offered by local councils and the general public educated on the ease of the materials recycling capability and its actual environmental friendliness. Unlike household recycling schemes for plastics and card, an EPS recycling scheme is yet to be adopted by most councils. Last year such a scheme was set up in Guernsey for businesses and consumers and has been very successful.

Although bulky, EPS is only 98% air and is surprisingly easy to recycle because it’s a single polymer material that’s simple to breakdown and can be recycled easily into other products.

SCA Foam Products are contacted on a regular basis by people who want to recycle EPS and as a company we provide recycling points at all five of our manufacturing plants throughout the UK and Ireland.

You find more information on our recycling locations below or you can visit the BPF for more information on recycling EPS.