Let me begin by saying that there are so many different types of beds out there that it would be very difficult to tell you about all of them. What I can tell you is that any chain store you go into in different cities will not have the same name for the exact same bed that they sell. Exclusivity is the name of the game. They don't want you to shop around for the prices on the same beds, so they just change the name of the bed, but the insides are all the same...ugh..
I will begin with some terms that you will be getting hit with when you are looking for a new bed, and trust me, there is a lot of them out there..
Glossary of Terms:
Bonnell: A knotted, round-top, hourglass-shaped steel wire coil. When laced together with cross wire helicals, these coils form the most basic innerspring unit. The finished unit is also referred to as a Bonnell.
Border rod: A heavy gauge wire rod attached to the perimeter of the innersring unit (top and bottom) by metal clips.
Box spring: A mattress foundation consisting of coils or other forms of springs mounted on a wood or metal frame and secured with a wire-interlaced or welded-wire grid, topped with upholstery and insulating materials and covered on the top and sides with fabric and on the bottom with a dust cover. Also see Foundation and Wire Foundation.
Coils: The individual wire springs that form an innerspring unit. See Bonnell, Hourglass Continuous and Offset Coils.
Coil Count: The number of coils in an innerspring unit. When specifying an innerspring unit, the coil count is usually designated by the number of coils in a full size unit of the model or series. Example: a "312 Bonnel" innerspring has 312 coils in the full-size and proportionately larger numbers in the queen and the king.
Continuous Coils: An innerspring configuration in which the rows of coils are formed from a single, continuous piece of steel wire.
Foundation: A generic term for any base or support for a mattress, though often used to refer to a construction that does not contain springs, usually a built-up wood base with some upholstery on top and covered with fabric. Also see Box Spring and Wire Foundation.
Gauge, wire: A measurement of the diameter of the steel wire used in coil construction. The wire gauge for inner spring unit coils ranges from 12.5 (quite thick) to 18 (quite thin). The higher the gauge, the thinner the wire.
Hand-tied: The process of havd-lacing the coils in box spring together with twine. Seldom used in modern bed construction.
Helical: A tightly-coiled, elongated wire used in the manufacture of innerspring units to join individual coils to each other.
Hourglass coils: Coils that taper inward from top to middle and outward from middle to bottom, thus resembling an hourglass in shape. They are typically employed in Bonnell and Offset coil designs.
Insulator: Any material on the top and bottom of an innerspring unit to prevent the upholstery layers from cupping down into the coils. Some common types are: a fiber pad, non-woven fabric, netting, wire mesh, or foam pad.
LFK: An unknotted offset coil with a cylindrical shape. An LFK innerspring unit is generally high coil count and high (thinner) gauge wire.
Marshall: A type of innerspring construction in which thin gauge, barrel-shaped, knotless coils are encased in fabric pockets. Also known as "pocketed coils."
Offset coils: A coil design on which portions of the top and bottom convolutions have been flattened to facilitate hinging action between coils. Offset coils with unknotted wire at the top and bottom are call "open offset."
Pocketed coil: See Marshall.
Spring wire: Wire made from high carbon steel, characterized by toughness, strength and ductility. Typically furnished in 8 to 18 gauge for bedding industry applications.
Straightline deflection: Pertains to mattress innerspring construction and refers to the constant ratio between stress and strain, weight and movement. This means that two people of unequal weight sleeping on the same mattress receive the same support.
Tempered steel: Steel for use in coil springs is treated with heat to reduce brittleness, a process employing electric charge, oven heat or both. The finished innerspring unit is also heat-tempered, or "stress relieved," to restore original coil characteristics after assembly.
Torsion bars: A type of spring system characterized by square-shaped wire forms used in box springs.
Welded grid top: Wire welded into a lattice to which box spring coils, formed wire or modules are fastened. Offers even weight distribution, but allows some flex and give.
Wire foundation: A unitized wire construction used as the main support system inside a foundation. See also Box spring and Foundation.
Now onto the Flexible Foam terms:
Convoluted foam: Foam that is specially cut to produce a sheet with dimples. Peaks can range from 1/2" to over 4" in height. Foam dimples can be produced in a number of shapes including egg-like designs, waves, squares or sharply-defined points.
Density: A measurement of the mass per unit volume, expressed in pounds per cubic foot (pcf) or kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m3). Foams are most often discussed in terms of their density.
High Resilience (HR) Foam: A type of polyurethane foam produced with a random cell structure, which helps increases support and surface resilience or bounce.
Indentation Force Deflection (IFD): A measure of a foam's load-bearing capacity, usually the force (in pounds) required to compress a 50-square-inch indentor foot into a 4-inch-thick sample. This was formerly called "ILD (Indentation Load Deflection)."
Laminated Foam: Foam layers that have been bonded together into a single composite using adhesives or heat.
Latex Foam: A flexible foam created from a water dispersion of rubber, either from the rubber tree (natural latex) or a man-made product (synthetic latex). Latex foams are not chemically related to polyurethanes.
Molded foam: foam that has been shaped by pouring the reactive chemicals into a mold cavity.
Recovery: The return to original dimension and properties after a deforming force is removed.
Resilience: An indicator of the surface elasticity or "springiness" of foam, measured by dropping a steel ball onto a foam cushion and measuring how high the ball rebounds.
Slab Stock: Flexible polyurethane foam made by the pouring of mixed chemicals onto a moving conveyor, where the chemicals react and rise to create a continuous loaf of foam.
"Supersoft" foam: Foams that have a low IFD measurement (with-in the 4 to 10 pound range) and a feel comparale to soft fiber.
Tensile strength: The pounds per square inch of force required to stretch a material to the breaking or tearing point.
Urethane: A common term for polyurethanes but actually a misnomer. Urethane is colorless, crystalline substance used primarily in medicines, pesticides, and fungicides, not in the production of polyurethane foams.
Viscoelastic foam: slow recovery polyurethane foams that are temperature-sensitive. they conform to body shape, and by doing so, increase the amount of surface area, reducing surface pressure. Also known as "memory foam."
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