Visco's history points to true space-age material
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, July 26, 2004
High Point — You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the history of visco-elastic foam. But you do have to go back to the early years of the space program to pick up the story at the beginning.
Visco-elastic foam originally was developed in the early 1970s by a company called Dynamic Systems, which was working in association with NASA's Ames Research Center. Scientists were engaged on a project to improve crash protection for airline passengers.
"The chemistry (for visco-elastic foam) was bouncing around in the labs but it never got developed," recalled Charles Yost, the aeronautical engineer who headed North Carolina-based Dynamic Systems in those days. He and the other scientists working on the NASA project changed that, introducing visco-elastic foam.
NASA was impressed. The new kind of foam "absorbed energy," Yost said. "That's what NASA liked about it."
Dynamic Systems sold the original manufacturing rights for the new visco material, but later went on to develop what it says are improved visco materials. Those materials are sold to companies in a variety of industries, including the bedding industry.
Yost, 71, remains a director of the company, whose visco product lines today include the SunMate and Pudgee brands. NASA has honored the company for its work in the space program.
NASA also has honored Tempur-Pedic International, the Lexington, Ky.-based company which popularized visco foam in the bedding industry.
According to Tempur-Pedic, the new visco-elastic foam developed for NASA didn't immediately lift off with consumers. "The original formula, developed for NASA, was not suited for introduction to the consumer market," says Tempur-Pedic, the world's leading producer and marketer of visco-elastic bedding and pillows, in its history of the company.
A company named Fagerdala World Foams began experiments in Sweden in the late 1980s to perfect the foam for consumer use. After nearly a decade of work and millions of dollars in research, the scientists had created a version for consumers. They called it Tempur pressure-relieving material. The Tempur name, trademarked by Tempur-Pedic, is still used by that producer today. Tempur is the Swedish word for temperature.
The new Tempur mattresses were successfully tested in Swedish hospitals before they were introduced to the consumer market in Sweden and later to consumers in the United States.
The Tempur foam, used in every Tempur-Pedic mattress and pillow, is an open-celled visco-elastic material that is five times denser than regular foam and is extremely sensitive to temperature and weight. The material quickly conforms to the contours of the body, supporting the lumbar area of the lower back while absorbing and relieving pressure points typically created at the hips and shoulders, according to the company.
The product's space-age roots have been officially recognized by NASA, which saluted Tempur-Pedic in 1998 for "significant contributions to transferring aeronautical and space research technology into the private sector to save lives, promote economic opportunity and help improve the quality of life for humankind."
Tempur-Pedic has been granted exclusive rights by the U.S. Space Foundation to display its "Certified Space Technology" seal on product packaging and marketing materials.
Tempur-Pedic itself dates to 1992. It was founded in the bluegrass and thoroughbred horse country of Kentucky by Bob Trussell, then a thoroughbred stallion breeder. He had a chance meeting with an executive of Fagerdala World Foams, which was marketing Tempur beds in Europe.
After one night on a visco-elastic mattress, Trussell was hooked. Tempur-Pedic was originally established as a unit of Swedish-based Tempur World. Tempur-Pedic International, a successor company, went public late last year and its stock is now traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Tempur-Pedic, which saw its wholesale bedding shipments jump 88% in 2003 to $188 million, is galloping ahead in the visco derby. Trussell, the company's president and CEO, appears to have another thoroughbred in his stable.
