Montaje de una planta de fabricación de espuma flexible de poliuretano para el laboratorio de innovación y desarrollo de colchones y muebles relax.

Abstract

This paper describes the adaptation and installation process of a polyurethane manufacturing laboratory for a furniture and mattress plant in the city of Barranquilla, Colombia. The laboratory's main mission is to serve as an experimental facility for the design and evaluation of new polyurethanes, based on formal requests from clients or the company's intention to innovate. At Colchones y Muebles Relax, the company for which this work was carried out, they are determined to implement controlled experimentation methods in the manufacture of foams that allow the adjustment of manufacturing parameters to satisfy these customer or own requirements, and for this, they implement a laboratory-scale plant (with all its components reused from disused equipment), that eliminate trial and error in the production of flexible polyurethane foam, that avoid the waste of large amounts of raw material, and that guarantee the obtaining the desired mechanical properties in polyurethane. This work shows the process in which the Innovation and Development Laboratory of the Muebles y Colchones Relax plant was developed and launched, with the purpose of facilitating the plant´s chemical engineers, to plan and obtain polyurethanes manufactured with desired specifications for customers, in modern, automated, and safe facilities.