Nanocoils: The smallest mattress coils so far

Nanocoils:

The smallest mattress coils so far

It used to be that the shortest mattress coils were the 4″ Bonnell coils in a sofabed mattress. The reason they were so short, when most coils were 7 or 8 inches high, was so the mattress could be folded to fit inside the sofa under the seat cushions.

With the introduction of pocket coils, the trend was for innerspring coils, at least the wrapped coils, to become taller, up to 9 or 10 inches. This allowed greater conformabiity and more weight-bearing capacity for these independent springs.

Then came much shorter springs, dubbed microcoils. Almost always pocket coils, these were shorter than the sofa bed coils, less than 4″ high. A sheet of these super short coils could be inserted into the comfort section of a mattress, such as between foam layers. Or 3″ to 4″ coils could top a traditional innerspring, such as offset coils, for a coil-on-coil construction.

Among the advantages of using microcoils are the option of placement closer to the sleepers, the increaased resistance to sagging, and the flow of air through the coils.

At some point, manufacturers and retailers began to distinguish the shortest microcoils from the others. Some began to call these minicoils. But in normal usage, micro is smaller than mini. This meant for some having to rename the coils taller than 1½” to 2″ as minicoils.

Now some manufacturers, including Hypnos Beds and Chattam & Wells, are calling the shortest coil springs nanocoils. Nano is definitely smaller than micro, so this makes sense. It would be a great idea if this terminology were universally adopted by those who make these very small coils or use them in products. Then minicoils could describe coils closer to 4″ high.

What the mattress industry needs is standard definitions for small coils. The question is, “Where do we draw the line between micocoils and nanocoils?” Another issue is how tall a microcoil has to be to be called a minicoil. If the term nanocoil is reserved for those less than ¾” high, then we can call springs between 2″ and 4″ minicoils.

For now, NanoCoil is a trademark of Bedding Components, a subsidiary of Leggett & Platt, so use of the term seems to be restricted to their products.


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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 21st, 2016 at 12:15 AM and is filed under beds, coils, innerspring, innerspring mattress, mattresses, microcoils, minicoils, springs . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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