Getting good sleep is always associated with a good and comfortable mattress. But before a comfortable mattress is achieved, a lot has been put into the design and the engineering to ensure that the mattresses are comfortable, durable, and good enough to survive in a competitive mattress market. The engineering of mattresses has advanced over time, from people sleeping on hard surfaces to using animal hair, grain shaving, and clothes to stuff sacks and using it as mattresses.
Over time, the design has improved to using spring inside upholstery to create a uniform layer in mattresses. However, the improved mattresses become expensive and available for only the high-class people, unlike today where you can visit website to pick from a variety of mattresses. Today, more thought is put into engineering to ensure that mattresses are efficient and can afford the user a peaceful night’s sleep.
How Mattresses Are Engineered
When people buy mattresses, they look for a soft and comfortable place to sleep. As a lot has been said and discussed on the importance of sleep in a person’s general well-being and health, the store must engineer their mattresses to meet these standards.
You may have come across several mattress stores, and all of them have different marketing messages, but all of them revolve around getting a sound sleep. For instance, if you’re in England you can check a mattress store in Bradford to find different mattress types and designs.
The engineering process starts with the design, raw materials, and the making itself. Here’s a deeper look into the process.
- The Design
The design of mattresses starts with the size. There are standard sizes with which these mattresses are manufactured, and they can be anything between 39 inches wide and 74 inches long for twin beds to 78 inches wide and 80 inches long for king-sized beds.
Mattresses are designed to have an innerspring, which acts as the core of the mattress. The innerspring is a series of wires attached using another wire and are fixed with upholstery materials. The upholstery consists of the insulator, which is often standard, and a cushioning layer which may vary in different aspects. The mattress also has a flange which is a connecting panel attached to the cover of a mattress.
These are the standard design of the mattress, though they can have different variations in shapes, sizes, and the number of innerspring.
Some of the standard designs include the following:
- Bonnell Springs– They’re shaped like an hourglass and knotted at both ends
- Offset Springs– Also designed as an hourglass but has a flat top and bottom to allow hinging of coils.
- Continuous Springs- It has S-shaped units of long strands of steel wires.
- Pocket Springs– Each coil is enclosed in a fabric pocket, and the pockets connect to another pocket.
A mattress could also have a box spring that lies beneath the mattress, acting as a foundation. The box springs can be made from springs or wooden frames.
- Raw Materials
The materials used to build mattresses can either be synthetic or natural. One mattress will use different materials depending on the part. Parts like the box-spring are made with a heavy gauge wire, while the innerspring and the helical are made with a light gauge wire. Unlike the box-spring, innerspring have softer materials such as natural fibers or polyester that were used for the cushioning layers to provide comfort in bed.
The sides of the mattress, including the top and the bottom side, use durable fabric fiber and may have form or fiber on it. A heavy-duty synthetic tape is used to hold the ticking together. Other raw materials used in engineering a mattress include fabric used in flanges and metal used in hogs’ rings.
- The Building Process
The building process usually consists of subcontracting a different manufacturer to build the innerspring and building a decorative cover for the sides. The insulator is applied manually, followed by the cushioning layers for comfort when the innerspring is received.
After the decorative cover is received and inspected, it is sewed to attach the flanges on the top and bottom sides. The completion requires more skills as it involves manually feeding the top and bottom side panels to a movable sewing head. The proper amount of each material has to be added, which makes the process more complex.
After the process is completed, the mattresses are inspected to ensure they meet the desired quality. Labeling is then done as required by the law before being packed in the plastic covers, and any other relevant information such as warranty added.
Conclusion
When you buy a mattress, you only enjoy the comfort it offers when you decide to take a rest or sleep. However, people tend to assume the efforts that are put into the engineering process to achieve that. This guide explains the process, such as the materials used and the whole design process. Understanding how complex the engineering process is may help bring awareness on why you should take proper care of your mattress.
