Vacuum shrinking foam

[Rich]

I watched an episode of "How it's made-dream cars" last night and they were showing the building of a Rolls Royce Phantom. The most interesting part for me, of course was the interior and at one point, they were installing the headrest covers with a vacuum machine to shrink the foam. The foam was placed inside a bag made of a green material which was fastened to a vacuum port at the bottom. The worker held the open top closed and turned on the machine which compressed the headrest foam so the cover could be slipped on. The part I'd like to know more about is that after the cover was in place, he pulled the assembly off leaving this bag still attached to the machine. So, it must be a strong enough fabric to be re-used and not tear when being pulled out from inside of the headrest assembly.
Does anyone know anything about this?
Thanks,
Rich

[SteveA]

Darn - now you ask - I just sold my Phantom -

SA

[scott_san_diego]

I saw that same episode a couple of weeks ago.  Found it to be very interesting.

[Darren Henry]

For the amount of that I do; I just use a cheap garbage bag and rip it out when I'm done.The cheaper the better---they rip easier  ;)

[west coast]

I don`t use that method very often but when I do I use dry cleaner bags because they don`t make any noise so you can leave it where it is and not tear it out. Drycleaner bags and good shop vac presto shrunken foam

[MinUph]

It is the coolest way to fill some pillows. I did a big round cylinder pillow was around 18 in diameter and 4' long. It would have been near impossible to fill but when sucked down it was a piece of cake. Had the time to precisely place it while it recovered.

[kodydog]

At work the other day the other upholsterer was watching me fill channels for a antique channel back chair. Although he has never built one he suggested the shrink wrap method. I was intrigued but wonder if it would need to be straightened or adjusted once the air was allowed back in.

[MinUph]

I've never tried a channel back. I don't know how much the cotton would suck down. If it were foam fill it would probably work.