Memory foam products are becoming more popular for sleeping products, and with internet shopping slowly replacing traditional in-store commerce, many people now wonder how their big, soft foam products get to where they need to go. Because of the sizable dimensions of large products like mattresses, people often imagine a worst case scenario when thinking about the cost of shipping such a large item. Fortunately, foam manufacturers have perfected packaging foam as economically as possible. One packaging method, typically used on bulk orders by larger manufacturers, is tightly rolling with heavy machinery. The other method, and the one more commonly used, particularly on individual purchases like mattresses or pillows, is vacuum packing.

Vacuum packing is one of those rare things that is as simple as it sounds. The item that needs to be shipped is attached to a vacuum that pulls air from the sealed package, substantially reducing its size. The reason this works so well is due to the fact that the majority of foam filling is air. With all the cells in open-cell foam being interconnected, you can quickly shrink a product down in size.

While it may seem as if it would take a very powerful machine to achieve the compression foam needs to economically ship, many companies don’t need or use a vacuum any more complicated or powerful than a simple wet/dry shop vacuum. Once the foam to be shipped is reduced by as much as 75 percent, it is sealed, wrapped, packaged, and sent on its way, cost-effectively.