BY MARY BEST
At ISPA’s biennial trade show, exhibitors showcased products that soon may be on your sales floor
Editor in Chief
Mattress manufacturers were busy shopping for product innovations during ISPA EXPO 2018 March 14-16 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sponsored by the International Sleep Products Association, the biennial show is the largest industrial trade event in the world focused exclusively on mattress machinery, equipment and components.
Curious about what’s next in mattress design and construction? ISPA EXPO 2018 offered plenty of hints:
- There was lots of natural latex foam, which offers durability and comfort, not to mention superior breathability—as demonstrated by Maastricht, Netherlands-based Vita Talalay. It showed a block of its natural latex lit from within and magnified to show the open-cell structure.
- Foamers offered fascinating suggestions for configuring all-foam cores, including this colorful concept by Wolfhausen, Switzerland-based FoamPartner.
- We also saw glitzy point-of-sale ideas—such as this close-up of a laser-etched, illuminated headboard created by Wright Global Graphics, headquartered in Thomasville, North Carolina.
- Artful mattress fabrics resembled intricate tapestries but were soft to the touch, like this ornate bronze and white fabric from Waregem, Belgium-based BekaertDeslee.
- Modernist panels looked wonderful as wall hangings, but are meant for mattresses, like this contemporary example from Boyteks Tekstil, headquartered in Kayseri, Turkey.
- We saw many hybrid collections introduced at this year’s show, and Carthage, Missouri-based Leggett & Platt Bedding Group worked hard to develop some interesting new concepts, such as these zoned Nanocoil Edge microcoils designed to strengthen the bed’s seat edge. L&P even invented a new slow-response Nanocoil whose comfort was reminiscent of traditional memory foam.
Want to know more? Visit the website of BedTimes, our sister publication, at BedTimesMagazine.com.
