Hi MFC Memory Foam Comfort,
The video you linked is very misleading and one sided and certainly doesn’t paint a complete picture about the pros and cons of a convoluted material. It talks about convoluted foam in comfort layers for example but doesn’t talk about convoluting foam in support layers where the thickness of the foam isn’t “doubled”, it deals with all the negatives of convoluting without addressing any of the positives and the tradeoffs involved, and it doesn’t talk about the quality of the materials that are convoluted and implies that it’s all “cheap junk” which is certainly not true.
Convoluting can be used to create a certain “feel” in a material that isn’t possible with solid layers because of differences in how the foam compresses (see post #2 here), it can be used in some types of designs to increase airflow (subject to some of the other limitations that I mentioned in my last post and the post you linked such as whether the channels stay open and or the breathability of the materials above it), and if the foam that is convoluted is higher density, it can still be a very durable material … particularly if the convoluted material is firmer or there are foam layers above it.
It’s also true that convoluting can be used to make two pieces of foam out of one which can lessen costs but it doesn’t double the height as is suggested in the video because it would depend on the height of the peaks and valleys in the foam. For example if you have a 3" piece of foam and your convolutions have a peak to valley height of 1" then you would end up with two 2" pieces of foam for a total height of 4" if you add them together. If the peak to valley height was 2" then you would end up with two 2.5" pieces of foam for a total combined height of 5". You can’t convolute a material to the full thickness of the material because there would be no solid substrate on the bottom to hold the convoluting together. In a base layer the relative increase in height due to convoluting (if you were using both pieces on top of each other) would be even less because the convoluting would be a much smaller percentage of the thickness of the material.
It’s somewhat frustrating to me when videos such as this that have “some” valid points and “sound informed” and are “easy to believe” only present one part of a bigger picture, make assumptions that the only reason to convolute a foam is to save money or “cheapen” a mattress, overgeneralize the topic they are dealing with, and then neglect to say anything at all about the other reasons that a manufacturer may legitimately decide to use convoluted foam in a mattress design or talk about the fact that you can convolute high quality materials that would still be durable or low quality materials that wouldn’t.
[quote]Next, how is the air circulating inside the mattress, supposed to cool you on top of the mattress?
Since the foam crates created by the convoluting process collapse when you lay on the mattress, how does the air move through it?[/quote]
Whether the convolutes “collapse” depends entirely on the firmness of the convoluted material, the height and pattern of the convoluting, the weight of the person on the mattress, and on the layers above the convoluting. In addition to this … all foam has some airflow with or without holes punched in the foam so there would be “some” effect on the ability for the mattress to ventilate heat into the outside environment through any channels in the convoluted material that remained open although I do agree with you that the air circulation and airflow and the corresponding effect on temperature regulation would be increased dramatically if there are holes in the foam layers above the convoluted core.
So overall … almost everything in mattress design has pros and cons and a I believe that a complete picture that discusses the benefits of both sides of every tradeoff is always a more effective approach.
Phoenix