Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, most definitely! Cellofoam North America has an excellent group of designers and engineers that create a large amount of custom packaging design for small companies as well as Fortune 500 clients. We have a team of engineers and technical designers who are eager to work with you to design packaging to protect, cushion, or insulate your products when shipped or stored. Cellofoam can design your shipping solution, design and acquire the molds for our custom-molded EPS foam machinery, and employ our modern systems to fabricate custom packaging for your products. We use a variety of computer-driven machines to automatically and inexpensively cut precision complex shapes in foams, such as hot-wire and water-jet cutting machines, as well as die-cutters. For over 50 years Cellofoam has worked closely with its customers to provide innovative, economical, and high-tech solutions to packaging problems.

Expanded Polystyrene, often referred to as EPS, is a rigid, closed cell foam plastic. Cellofoam EPS has a low thermal conductivity, high compressive strength, is extremely light weight, inert, stable, moisture resistant, has no food value, and does not promote mold growth, making it ideal for a variety of packaging applications. EPS is processed from its resin form (a small bead resembling sugar) containing pentane gas (usually about 3-6%) which is safely released during the expansion process and disposed of within EPA requirements. Using steam, the EPS resin expands dramatically resulting in molded final products that are approximately 98% to 99% air by volume. Cellofoam EPS makes for a great packaging material as it is extremely lightweight, absorbs shock and compressive forces, and it can be produced with a variety of densities and shapes specifically made for your packaging needs.

Cellofoam North America produces a wide variety of EPS and other types of foam packaging. Our custom molded packaging, rigid foam box inserts, planks, sheets, trays, liners, and other products have been used to protect everything from high tech, sensitive electronics to military equipment to wine to heavy industrial equipment. We manufacture in five different states, providing flexible and responsive solutions to your requirements.

In addition to EPS, Cellofoam North America employs a wide variety of other plastic foams, such as polyurethane, anti-static, polypropylene, and polyethylene foams to address specific customer needs and transportation challenges.

Yes, Cellofoam North America manufactures a wide variety of cold chain packaging solutions, including stock expanded polystyrene (EPS) shippers under the Perma Cool® brand name as well as custom-designed shippers to meet any required ISTA temperature profile. From pharmaceuticals to food, compliance with your cold chain shipping requirements can be achieved with our insulated shippers.

In addition to our line of insulated shippers for cold shipping, we also offer a variety of Perma Cool® Gel packs. These cold gel packs range in sizes from 6 ounces to 48 ounces and are non-toxic, food grade, durable, leak-resistant, and reusable ensuring the safe delivery of your products.

No. Cellofoam does not and never has used chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) or hydro chlorofluorocarbons (HCFC's), which are harmful to the ozone layer.

No. Past studies have shown EPS constitutes less than 1% of total landfill by either weight or volume. However, we are working to reduce even that amount through recycling. Some of Cellofoam’s EPS products use as much as 30% recycled EPS content. In fact, nearly all of our scrap EPS today is recycled, either ground up for reuse internally or densified and sold to other companies for other applications. EPS is stable and benign and does not adversely affect groundwater.

Yes. Our website has a link at the bottom of the page that provides a link to EPS recycling centers. As noted above, Cellofoam now recycles nearly all of our pre-consumer EPS scrap today.