•  On May, 19, 2021
•  admin
•   PVA Sponge

PVA block sponge and PU sponge look very similar and many consumers are confused about the sponge materials. Many only know it is a foam or sponge product but unable to further differentiate the materials.

In this article, we are going to list out some differences between the PVA sponge material and the PU sponge material.

PVA Block Sponge material is dominating the industrial cleaning process because of its soft and durable characteristics. Whereby, the PU sponge is more popular in household products because of its competitive cost.

Sponge Material Comparison

The PVA sponge and PU sponge are built from polymer. And the PU polymer material is harder if compare with the PVA polymer. The harder PU material makes the PU sponge a good choice for household cleaning but it may cause minor scratches on the surface.

Compare with PVA sponge material, PVA sponge is much softer in terms of product characteristics, hence it will not cause scratches on the substrate surface.

Even though the PVA block sponge and PU sponge look like, but in household cleaning, people tend to use PU sponge. This is because the PU sponge is cost-effective. Furthermore, minor scratches may not visible in household applications.

However, in the industrial cleaning process, the field engineers prefer PVA block sponge. This is because scratches are less tolerated from an industrial perspective.

Sponge Application Comparison

PU and PVA sponge is meant to use at the wet stage condition. Especially the dry PVA block sponge turns hard and totally not suitable to use under the dry stage. Even though the PU sponge is soft even under the dry stage but the cellulose structure will scratch the substance surface.

PU Sponge

We could find the trace of PU sponge either in industrial applications or household applications. There is some difference base on different application but their main material is PU synthetic.

The PU sponge commonly used at below few areas:

• Household foaming products. Most of the dishwashing sponge and the abrasive sponge is made from the melamine sponge.
• Insulator Foam. Such as the insulator foam uses to cover the air cond tube.
• Automotive Industry. Car seat, bumper consist of PU sponge material.
• Packing Material. The PU sponge could give an extra cushioning effect and protect the part during handling and transporting.

PVA Sponge

The PVA sponge has launched in the market 50 years ago by IBM engineers, but their application mainly limited to industrial applications. Even though we are seeing some household products is using PVA sponge material but the coverage is still much lesser compare with Melamine sponge.

The PVA sponge mainly uses in:

1. Industrial Application.
   The PVA sponge could manufacture in various designs, such as roller, sheet form sponge, or block sponge.
2. Household application.
   The common PVA mop and PVA chamois cloth are products derived from industrial application.
3. Sports Arena.
   The PVA towel is a dedicated design for the swimming sport.

Sponge Structural Comparison

Both PVA block sponge and melamine are having an open cell pore structure. However, both products are having differences in terms of microstructure.

PVA Block Sponge

The pore structure for the PVA sponge is an open cell structure under micron size. This fine micron size porous technology provides excellent durability as well as cleaning ability.

PU Sponge

On the other hand, the porous size in the melamine sponge is way much larger. Its porous structure comes with mm size and much larger than the PVA sponge material.

This pore size will give better in terms of water flow unfortunately, this also makes the pore structure easy to collapse.

Both PVA block sponge and Melamine sponge have their own market. You are always welcome to talk with DST to understand more about our PVA sponge material.