Liquid Shredder builds boards with 3 technical priorities:
- Safety
- Strength
- Environmental awareness
Eco-Friendly Materials
We make every effort to use recycled or recyclable materials that are both strong and safe.
EPS & XPS Foams
The Tech is Healthy & Eco-Friendly choice in board foam cores are polystyrenes:
EPS and XEPS are the material of choice for all Liquid Shredder boards — from all the foams available.
There are three major rigid plastic foams commonly used for Surf, SUP & Bodyboards:
•Extruded polystyrene (XPS) Used in LS Peruvian Models
•Expanded polystyrene (EPS) Used in LS FSE Series Boards
•Polyurethane (PU) A dangerous and unhealthy product in use in board making (LS never uses PU foams)
Each Polystyrene foam formulation has specific characteristics that make it attractive for particular board applications.
•EPS has a history of successful technical board applications
•EPS has the best balance of long term performance, stability and health/environmental concerns.
•EPS offers the lowest weight and cost of the foams.
HOW EPS IS MADE
•EPS is a closed-cell foam made up of small beads — expanded like “popcorn” to 40 times their original size – which are then pressed into large blocks using steam and then cut into sheets or shapes. EPS varies in terms of bead size and it can be formed at different densities.
•EPS is 90% + air. Its only structure is the shell around its air pockets.
•EPS uses only a portion of the petroleum product to make than other foam products. It is estimated that the amount of petroleum product to make EPS is 1/7 of what it takes to make the same volume of XPS. This has significant environmental and cost implications.
STABILITY & RESISTANCE TO MOISTURE
•EPS’s stability is very well documented. It has the same tech strength at manufacture as it does up to 20 years later.
•EPS does not degrade or deteriorate over time. It is resistant to mold and mildew because it provides no nutritive value for insects, bacteria, etc.
•EPS does not off-gas poisonous and carcinogenic vapors like other technical foam products.
•EPS has superior dimensional stability qualities that assure that shape and strength are maintained over the life of the board.
•EPS’ closed-cell structure gives it outstanding resistance to moisture absorption. This is critical because once any foam absorbs moisture, it gains weight, becomes more brittle and is likely to break.
SAFETY
Tech is Concerned with safety and the environment? With EPS you shouldn’t have to be.
•According to the Naval Engineering Standard (NES), a method that calculates a toxicity index based on 14 quantitatively determined combustion and/or thermal decomposition gases, the toxicity of EPS is 1.8 compared to urethane’s 40.