Full Body Pressure Imaging Improves Mattress Design

Designing a comfortable mattress is an on-going challenge faced by mattress manufacturers. Design engineers must be able to design a product that is comfortable for a vast population of people, while keeping manufacturing costs low.

Tekscan’s Body Pressure Measurement System™ (BPMS™) provides a means to quantify comfort on various mattress designs to improve support and pressure relief. The system can compare competing mattress lines, as well as perform comparative testing between different mattress surface materials, such as spring, foam, latex, and air.

The system can also be used as a sales tool that can help retailers increase their volume and average sales. Pressure mapping a customer takes only a few seconds and shows them a colorful, intuitive image of their pressure distribution and peak pressure points. This can be used to advise the customer on the best mattress for their needs. Mattress retailers can also use this to demonstrate the benefits of a more expensive mattress and add-ons, like pillows, by showing how these products can reduce their peak pressure points and improve their sleep comfort.

BPMS provides data in real-time and 2D or 3D pressure displays. Peak pressure areas can easily be identified, compared, and adjusted thus saving time in design verification and re-engineering costs. With the help of Tekscan’s highly qualified sales and engineering support team, each system can be configured to meet your specific needs.

Output of subject laying on a 2-sensor mat configuration (sensor model 5400ND). The high spatial resolution of the sensor allows you to measure and display the high pressure areas (in red) as the subject is laying down.

Mattress Design Pressure Imaging Applications

• Research & development
• Design evaluation
• Mattress support testing
• Pressure relief improvements
• Competitive benchmarking

Benefits of Pressure Imaging

• Record measurements across the entire body simultaneously
• Evaluate manufacturing processes
• Repeatable output