Foam Expo North America promises to be a three-day extravaganza featuring over 400 exhibitors, product/material/process demonstrations, conference sessions, and networking. Now in its eighth year, Foam Expo will run June 24 to 26 at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Michigan, near Detroit.
The expo is completely free to attend, a key advantage that sets this show apart and sets a welcoming, community-oriented tone. You can register for free at https://www.foam-expo.com/register?utm_source=focus&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=article.
The largest show of its kind in North America, this annual event is “focused on the foam industry… We welcome quite a diverse group of industry professionals, OEMs, buyers, and CEOs. Heavily focused on advanced engineering and high-performance materials, we welcome chief engineers, design engineers, chemical engineers, and product engineers under one roof—everybody involved in design and manufacturing products,” says event organizer Tom Rhodes, Portfolio Director of foam and adhesives at Informa Markets.
As the expo takes place in Michigan, Rhodes expects a large turnout from the automotive industry. He makes clear, however, that the show does not center on any one market. “We’re not just about the automotive sector; we welcome a large number of attendees and exhibitors who supply products to the aerospace, medical, packaging, construction, and leisure industries,” he explains.
As Rhodes notes, industrial foam is widely used across numerous industries including automotive, medical, and aerospace, where lightweight foam provides cushioning and insulation. Foam improves soundproofing and thermal efficiency in building projects and protects and insulates packaging. Medical equipment frequently incorporates foam for cushioning. Comfort foam, another branch of the foam market, is used to augment support and the soothing feel of furniture, mattresses, and the like.
This year’s Foam Expo will be co-located with Adhesives & Bonding Expo, a trade event that covers many related topics, concerns, and concepts. Informa Markets organizes both shows.
“One of the major benefits of co-locating is we’re offering wider access to more products, solutions, and expertise across both foam and adhesives. [The two shows] attract buyers and decision-makers who have an interest and need for both foam applications and adhesives applications,” states James Mackintosh, Event Director of foam and adhesives at Informa Markets.
Adhesives & Bonding Expo takes place in the same hall, and visitors are welcome to drop by both events. “If you’re attending, you have access to everything,” says Rhodes. “All the content on the show floor is free; attendance for both shows is free. We have a number of networking sessions as well that we run throughout the day.”
Each exposition will focus on the full supply chain of its respective sector, ranging “from raw materials all the way through the manufacturing process… to tier-one suppliers and end-users—following the product all the way through its entire lifecycle.”
There will be presentations galore at these events, with speakers and panels at the Industry Stage and the Solutions Stage. Combined, these stages will host over 60 speakers and feature more than 20 sessions and 16-plus hours of content. The industry stage will offer presentations about “industry drivers, industry inhibitors, macro challenges, the industry of tomorrow, trend development—all that good stuff that will be of interest for those who want to understand how the industry will develop over the next five to ten years,” says Mackintosh.
Past years’ presentations ranged from the technical— ‘Closing the Loop with Sustainable Raw Materials for Foaming and the Advantages of Recyclable Polypropylene Foam Production by Twin-Screw Extrusion Technology’ was the title of one lecture in 2024—to broader topics such as a keynote speech, ‘Shaping a Sustainable Future: An Automotive OEM Perspective Guiding the Next Twenty Years.’ Presentations at the solutions stage at the Adhesives & Bonding Expo will be more product, solution, and technology-based, says Mackintosh.
It is a safe bet that certain topics will dominate discussion at Foam Expo 2025, with supply chain issues being a leading concern. Numerous global factors can all negatively impact supply chains, and material costs have been unpredictable as of late, complicating business forecasts, so proposed solutions to such matters will certainly be discussed. Navigating Tariffs: Managing Supply Chain & Cost Challenges in the Industry is one such session; Trade Policy Under New Administration: Risks, Strategies & Global Implications another. “There’s a lot of volatility in play, a lot of unknown. These tariffs affect everyone,” Mackintosh notes.
Both vendor diversification and its counterpart—solidifying long-term relationships with suppliers and customers—for example, can help ease supply chain woes. Simplifying supply chains to decrease complexity and enhance transparency while identifying and addressing potential bottlenecks are other ways foam firms are dealing with this issue, says Mackintosh.
Technology is another key topic, with sessions to include Innovations in Thermal Management: Cooling Technologies for EV Batteries; Lightweight Revolution: Unlocking Sustainability and Efficiency; and Integration of AI and Six Sigma for Optimized Adhesive Selection in the Automotive Industry. AI “is being used more in the foam and adhesives industry to enhance materials selection, streamline formulations processes, and ultimately optimize manufacturing and output,” explains Mackintosh.
Sustainability, too, remains of great importance, and will be highlighted in the Sustainable Innovation: Bio-Based Additives for a Greener Future and Leading the Way in Sustainability: Innovators at the Forefront of the Foam Industry sessions. Environmental awareness is key to both expos, with many exhibitors opting to highlight eco-friendly solutions and products. “Sustainability is becoming more of an agenda-topping theme for everyone,” Mackintosh notes.
In addition to presentations, there will be demonstrations on the show floor centering on everything from new machinery and processes to technological developments and new products for end-users. “There’s a huge amount of innovation that we’re showcasing,” notes Rhodes with pride.
Organizers cite Foam Expo sponsor FSI and Schmitz Foam as leaders in sustainability. Based in Missouri, FSI is a self-described “world leader in polyurethane systems and technology.” The company offers a line of eco-friendly, biodegradable, and non-toxic products including spray foam, pour-in-place foam, and integral skin foam systems featuring FSI’s unique Ecomate technology. Schmitz Foam, a Dutch company with a branch in the United States, specializes in recycling foam residues and transforming them into new products.
Brand new elements at Foam Expo 2025 include Edge Expo, a space reserved for networking and meetings. “We wanted to create a strong, standout focal point… in the heart of Foam Expo,” says Mackintosh. Foam Expo “is prime time” for attendees who want “to get face to face with industry contacts, new and current,” he adds.
The Comfort Lounge is set to become another unique attraction at the expo. The lounge “shines a light on comfort products, materials, and technologies,” intended to serve as a hub for attendees who are either involved with the comfort foam industry or who simply want a cozy spot for some downtime.
Organizers expect over 400 exhibitors to participate in both expos, with the larger Foam Expo accounting for more than half of this total. There will be exhibitors from around the world at Foam Expo and big names represented, including 3M, Mitsubishi, and HP (Hewlett-Packard). An estimated 5,300 visitors are expected to check out the co-located shows over their three-day span.
Foam Expo organizers are also working with an industry association called the Engineering Society of Detroit to encourage engineering students to attend the show. The plan is to interest students in careers in the industrial foam sector by getting them to speak with exhibitors and listen to round-table discussions, says Rhodes. It is a clever strategy, given that Foam Expo has become a well-established success, as evidenced by a survey of people who attended last year’s show. 85 percent of respondents rated the expo as having ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ value while 82 percent rated networking at the event as ‘good’ or “excellent’. A further 80 percent said the show helped them find new companies, while 74 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the three-day show offered better connections than a year’s worth of LinkedIn.
Complementing this survey are flattering remarks from high-ranking attendees of previous Foam Expos. “Prior to Foam Expo in 2017, there was nothing specifically for the foam industry, so this show puts everybody in the right spot at one time,” John Vinci, Business Development Manager at Worldwide Foam, an Indiana company specializing in cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) foam, told Foam Expo.
“My experience has been extremely positive, and the event is well organized. We’ve been here since Foam Expo started, so we are happy to come back every year to experience the great environment,” echoed Christoph Magnet, CEO of foam cutting equipment firm Bäumer of America.
“I learn something new every time here—even though I have been working in the foam industry for 27 years,” added Karl Hewson, Director of Technology and Development at Zotefoams, an international market leader in supercritical foams. “Three words to describe it would be: friendly, family, innovative.”
If all goes well, more rave reviews will follow this year’s Foam Expo in Novi, Michigan. Don’t miss your chance to be a part of this growing community; register today at https://www.foam-expo.com/register?utm_source=focus&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=article.
