Fome-Cor Brand

[danvestate]

We are cuurently deciding if our company wants to distribute the fome core brand Fome-Cor. If you have used this brand before, could you please let me know what you think of the product and how it compares to the competition (Bainbridge, Hunt, etc..)

Daniel Cochrane
Sales Manager
Vestate Moulding

 

[Puppyraiser]

Well, you didn't get much help here, did you? I always used to use FomeCor (mainly because my uncle worked in the plant where it was made). He was so tickled when he came to visit just after I opened the shop, and he saw FC there! It was developed, I believe, for insulation in trailers. But I digress... If you can distribute at a good price, I say go for it. Framers seem most concerned about price on regular foam core boards. Bainbridge has that zeolite technology going for it, when it gets to the more archival versions. My main gripe is that I have noticed that foam cores aren't nearly as non-crushable as they used to be, but perhaps that is one of those "In my day, why, you could never put a thumb print in foam core by simple handling. Yes, they really knew how to build it back then." kind of statement. Was that any kind of help at all?

 

[Ron Eggers]

The last time I used Fomecor brand fomeboard, it was from Monsanto. Maybe it still is. I decided it was spongier and less "forgiving" than some others I've used, so I didn't buy it again. That was a long time ago, so there've probably been changes.

One of the changes is: I don't even know what to call the Bienfang fomeboard that I used most often, so I now use Bainbridge almost exclusively.

If anyone tells me I have to start calling it Nurre/Nielsen/Bainbridge ArtCare fomeboard, I'm going back to using corrugated.

 

[Alan Sturgess]

Fome cor is the original brand name of what was developed by Monsanto. They sold the company to International Paper, they sold it to someone else and they then sold it to Alcan Compososites a couple of years ago.

They were the first or one of the first companies to sandwich foam between two sheets of paper. The prime early use for the material was NOT drymounting in the picture frame industry, but silkscreening signs in the printing, and silkscreening trade. This was way before digital imaging and output from printers. Someone obviously tried it for framing and liked what they saw.

The Fome Cor board, unless they have changed it does NOT have memory and this is a problem in picture framing. Also Fome Cor in known for it’s voids or empty holes inside. When you leave it too long in the press or when you have the heat higher for laminating you can end up with sink holes.

The reason I got into selling foam board ( Bienfang) 15 years ago was because a customer I sold a Seal 500T and laminates complained that the end product had these big sink holes in it and was unacceptable. About three phone calls later the local expert in Vancouver that did 4 ft x 8 ft laminating in his vacuum press, told me to stay away from Montsano FomeCor due to the inherent problems experienced when put in heat presses.

Also if you set up your wall cutter and slice off a long piece of the edge of Montsano/FomeCor board about 1/16” thick and compare it to Bienfang board, and hold the two pieces up to the light you will be surprised. Lots of light comes through the many holes in the FomeCor while the Bienfang is solid with no voids.

The original FomeCor was also great for stamping out display signs. The silkscreeners would print on the board and then die cut the signs. The edge where the blade pushed down to compress the foam and cut would stay compressed. The whole image could be given relief to make the sign stand out better. This is because the board has NO MEMORY. Board made with memory, like Bienfang will want to return to its original thickness when cut or die cut for signs.
Also if you push down accidentally on Bienfang board the foam will want to return to it original thickness.

Bienfang actually makes a special board for the sign industry and they call it PILLOWCORE. It looks the same, but has the NO MEMORY feature so the edges stay compressed when die cut.

If you plan to sell to the picture framing trade I would find a better board. They may have improved the board or developed MEMORY board over the years, but check that out for sure.

Alan