FAP takes pride in contributing to a greener world where sustainability is not just a demand but a reality
Italian company FAP leads the way in manufacturing machinery for foam production (extrusion lines & downstream equipment) and converting (laminators, welders, cutters), from conception to creation. By redefining the future of the foam industry, FAP demonstrates that it’s possible to combine high quality with environmental responsibility. Thanks to the Italian Foam Centre and internal laboratory foam extrusion line, FAP actively adapts to changes and developments in the foam markets. FAP supports its customers in successfully diversifying their products, discovering new perspectives, and exploring production opportunities in alternative niches.
That’s why today, the extrusion technology of physically foamed branched polypropylene is gaining significant interest due to its superior material properties: lightweight, strong, thermoformable, 100% easily recyclable and reusable, non-toxic and non-allergenic. It offers outstanding energy absorption, excellent thermal insulation, and resistance to chemicals, oils and water, and high temperatures. Additionally, it is impact-resistant and can be laminated gluelessly with a wide range of materials (e.g., PE, metal foil, metalized BOPP films).
These characteristics make foamed PP the ideal material for various applications across major industries, such as Construction, sound and thermal insulation for interiors and roofing, insulators for contraction and expansion joints, and protection for substrates or waterproofing membranes, vibration damping in road and railroad construction, and Automotive, insulation and energy-absorbing panels, consumer packaging. Unlike other foams, which are difficult and expensive to recycle, PP foam offers a commercially viable alternative that can be recycled efficiently at a lower cost while maintaining or even improving performance properties. For example, the average cost of processing 1 m3 of industrial waste physically foamed polypropylene will cost the manufacturer only 6.4% of the cost of raw materials for 1 m3 of finished products.
In 2023-2024 FAP and Borealis have joined forces for a special project to achieve better process stability in the foaming process. By leveraging their expertise in polypropylene resins and foaming technology, the partners aim to improve physical foaming processes to offer innovative, resource-efficient, and environmentally compatible material solutions.
“Our decades of experience in foam extrusion and many years of laboratory have expanded our understanding of what is possible in the physical foaming of polymers. In this collaboration with Borealis, we have further refined our unique counter-rotating twin-screw extrusion technology. The result is superior quality and unique characteristics of the finished foam product”, Francesco Poli, FAP CEO.
The advanced twin-screw extrusion technology from FAP allows producing foamed innovative materials of the highest quality and unique characteristics. PP foam extruders are among the most flexible on the market, allowing a wide range of productions to be carried out with a single line, thereby increasing the competitiveness of the production process. Specialized screw designs provide homogeneous mixing of material and gas, improving integration of various components and significantly reducing recipe changeover time and process waste. Precise control of parameters such as temperature, pressure, material flow, screw speed and gas flow further improve production efficiency.
Compared to conventional polyethylene and polystyrene resins, physically foamed PP can withstand high operating temperatures of up to 125°C. For example, foamed PP extruded on the FAP EXT753 line (thickness 5 mm/density 50 kg/m³) offers:
- Thermal conductivity 0.034°C W/m
- Compressive strength at 10 % 0.05 MPa (5 302 kg/m2)
- Water absorption within 24 hours 0.7%
- Application temperature from -40°C to 125°C
- Impact noise reduction index 24 dB
- Elongation at break 65.5%
- Residual deformation when compressed by 50% in 72 hours: 10%
FAP takes pride in contributing to a greener world where sustainability is not just a demand but a reality.
