Our Process

Narrative Description of Our Process

Storage and Blending

Mountain Top Foam has various types of Latex compounds that are stored in one of five maturators for blending, curing and temperature control. When required for production, the cured latex compounds are statically mixed according product formulas and piped to the line feed tanks in the foaming area.

Foaming and Pouring

The latex compound is then “foamed” by adding air into the compound and passing the mixture through blenders. The foam is deposited onto the continuous line plates which have pins necessary for the steam vulcanization process to occur after pouring. The poured mixture’s height is determined by “raking” or scraping the top of the poured compound to a consistent height as the line moves the plates forward in the process under an infrared treatment that “skins” the top.

Vulcanization Process

The continuous line mold then passes through a vulcanizer where the vulcanization process is initiated in a steam heated atmosphere.

Release and Washing

After the latex exits the vulcanizer it is released from the pin plates used in the vulcanization process and enters a washing bath comprised of a water spray and three separate squeeze rollers to maximize the washing process.

Drying Process

After washing, the continuous latex sheet passes through a forced air steam heated series of drying elements where the curing continues and entrained water is evaporated.

Measuring and Cutting

Exiting the dryer, the latex sheet is cooled and passed to a measuring cutting station. The unit thickness and nominal density are then measured and the sheet is cut to produce a latex core of a pre-programmed width.

Final Verification

After cutting to size, the core is conveyed to a load cell where it is weighed, measured for proper dimensions, inspected for visual defects, and offloaded to a bagger.

Lab Verification

Samples from the beginning, middle and end of each specific latex SKU production run are cut and sent to the in-house lab to be tested for validation compliance with established SKU specifications.

Warehousing

Finished products are transported to the warehouse and stored for a minimum of 24 hours to allow full curing before shipping. Inventory levels are maintained of all core SKUs to allow quick shipment of latex to meet customer needs.