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about STYROFOAM brand <br />plastic foams <br />STYROFOAM brand products are made and <br />marketed only by The Dow Chemical Company. <br />Today there are seven basic ST^ ROFOAM <br />brand products: <br />• STYROFOAM brand insiilHlion — Blue <br />plastic foam be »rds with eithei '<'ngue-and- <br />groove or flat edges. Used to ini date residential <br />and commercial buildings. <br />• STYROFOAM brand plastic foam decora­ <br />tive billets and boards — For use in the fabrica­ <br />tion of craft, floral, and display items. The <br />decorative billets are green or white; the <br />decorative boards are green only. <br />• STYROFOAM brand plastic foam <br />buoyancy billets — For use in docks, rafts, <br />marinas, etc. The color is blue. <br />• STYROFOAM brand insulation mastic — <br />An adhesive used to install STYROFOAM <br />brand insulation. <br />• STYROFOAM FP brand foundation <br />panels — Blue plastic foam boards with a pro­ <br />tective and decorative pebbled coating. Used to <br />cover and insulate foundations of houses and <br />light commercial buildings. <br />• STYROFOAM brand foundation <br />coating — A protective brush-on coating for <br />STYROFOAM brand insulation installed on <br />exterior foundation walls. <br />• STYROFOAM LIGHTGUARD brand <br />insulation — A lightweight roofing panel <br />covered vrith a layer of latex-modified concrete. <br />Insulates and protects roof membrane. <br />All of the STYROFOAM plastic foams are identical <br />in that all are made: <br />• From the same chemical starting material — <br />solid granules called pol\>st\^rene plastic. <br />• By an extrusion process <br />involving <br />technology <br />and know-how <br />developed by Dow. <br />• Only in rigid bulk forms — as billets or boards. <br />extruding “bubbles’’ <br />Cut through a piece of STYROFOAM plastic foam <br />and the closed-cell structure becomes visible. It <br />looks like a mass of bubbles, each one sharing a <br />wall with its neighbor. <br />The Dow process creating these bubbles takes <br />place in an extruder. Polystyrene granules fed into <br />the extruder are melted into a thick fluid. Then a <br />mixture of gases, called a “blowing agent,” is <br />injected to foam the fluid into a mass of bubbles. <br />Heat and pressure are controlled so that the mass <br />of bubbles begins to stiffen or “set” At the same <br />i me, the solidifying mass is extruded — pushed <br />out — through a die which shapes it as a billet <br />or board. <br />The clostd cell structure <br />of STYROFOAM plastic <br />foams is shown here. <br />materials, Including ^JFQAM^S <br />bjrand DroducS^ryco& <br />^heiite'of STYROFOAM <br />^in^^u^ons on handling nnd <br />In an extruder, a <br />solidifying mass of <br />polystyrene foam <br />is pushed through <br />a die, creating <br />a board of <br />STYROFOAM <br />brand plastic <br />foam.