History

Recticel Group

The European Recticel Group has operations in 110 locations in 27 countries. Recticel is the leading manufacturer of polyurethane foam products in Europe. In addition to padding materials, the Group’s business comprises products for the mattress, insulation and automotive industries.

N.V. Recticel A.S. is a Belgian listed company with net sales of EUR 1.35 billion in 2010. The number of employees is about 8400.

In addition to high quality, Recticel is committed to ethically, environmentally and socially responsible operations. The company uses the best available technology for minimising environmental hazards.
Recticel Oy’s foam plant is located in Kouvola, and the number of employees is 120. Recticel applies the principles of sustainable development in all its operations. It has voluntarily committed itself to stricter safety, health and environmental requirements than EU legislation would require. Consequently, it has been awarded the European CertiPUR certificate. Lloyds has awarded Espe the ISO 9001 quality certificate, the ISO 14001 environmental certificate and the OHSAS 18001 health and safety certificate.

Finnish Recticel Oy is part of the Recticel Group. The subsidiary was established on 1 January 2010, when Espe Oy in Kouvola and Superlon Oy in Rauma joined their operations.

History of polyurethane foam

In 1937, professor Otto Bayer with his co-workers managed to develop an isocyanate polyaddition reaction in the main laboratory of Farbenfabriken Bayer, thus creating a plastic foam material.

- 1950s Commercial manufacture of the first generation polyurethane foam product, polyester foam, was introduced. In Finland, production began in 1955.
- 1960s The next major milestone in the history of polyurethane foam was the use of polyether polyalcohols as the other raw material component of polyurethane foam, developed in the U.S. This development made it possible to manufacture softer polyurethane foams, better suited as cushion.
- 1970s The so-called third generation polyurethane foam, i.e. high resilient foam, was first developed for cushion blown in moulds. Manufacture using preform blowing began a few years later.
- 1990’s The latest foam innovations, made in the middle of the 1990’s and end of the 1990’s were a rubber foam (Eterlon Relax) and a visco-elastic foam (Eterlon Formax). Eterlon’s Relax foam’s elasticity resembles that of latex but is extremely fireresistant. Eterlon Formax foam automatically adjusts to the temperature and weight of the user.

About Recticel Oy

Espe Oy is well-known as a reliable Finnish manufacturer. The company was established in 1912 and has long traditions in manufacturing polyurethane foam products and mattresses.

Superlon Oy was the first company in Finland to introduce the manufacture of polyurethane foam in 1955. The industrial sectors that used padding were introduced to a revolutionary new product called SUPERLON®, which was presented to the general public at the Helsinki spring fair in the same year.Superlon® continues to be the best known polyurethane foam brand in Finland.