NCFI Changes the Game

Spray Foam Magazine – Late Summer 2026 – For more than six decades, one company has quietly helped shape the success of the American spray polyurethane foam (SPF) industry, and in turn, the U.S. building industry. Since 1964, NCFI Polyurethanes has been developing SPF solutions for residential and commercial applications, helping contractors work more efficiently and profitably.

While many industry players were acquired by foreign interests or absorbed into multinational corporations, NCFI remained independently owned, focused on innovation, and committed to serving contractors. That commitment has produced a steady stream of practical solutions designed to address the real-world challenges SPF professionals face every day.

Today, NCFI is raising the bar again with its new OPTIMAXX™ product line—engineered to provide higher yields, improved performance across seasonal conditions, greater installation flexibility, and stronger profit margins for contractors.

The new line is the direct result of NCFI’s United States of Spray Foam™ program, an ongoing collaboration that puts contractors at the center of product development. Through the program, insulation professionals from across the country provide feedback on performance, application challenges, equipment demands, and customer expectations. NCFI's chemists and technical teams then turn those field insights into innovations that help contractors spray more efficiently, reduce waste, and improve consistency.

Rather than developing products in a laboratory vacuum, NCFI develops solutions alongside the people who use them every day. The result is OPTIMAXX™—a contractor-driven advancement designed for high-performance in the field, not just on paper.

According to Mitch Clifton, EVP of Construction Foam, the program was born from a desire to bring stability and trust back to an industry transformed by consolidation. “The many ownership changes of SPF manufacturers over the years created a trust vacuum,” said Clifton. “Contractors often found themselves working with products that looked familiar but performed differently. Formulations changed, yields varied, and consistency became harder to predict. Not here at NCFI.”

Clifton says NCFI responded by creating a process that invited contractors to become partners in product development.

“As an independent American company serving American contractors, we wanted to listen first,” Clifton said. “The United States of Spray Foam program gives contractors a direct voice in shaping the products they use every day.”

Clifton says the OPTIMAXX line reflects years of collaboration with contractors working in diverse climates and conditions across the country. “We’re not trying to win awards,” he says. “We’re focused on helping contractors succeed. OPTIMAXX delivers the consistency, performance, and profitability they’ve been asking for, and that's what matters most.”  

Spray Foam Magazine does not take editorial positions on particular issues; individual contributions to the magazine express the opinions of discrete authors unless explicitly labeled or otherwise stated. The inclusion of a particular piece in the magazine does not mean that individual staff members or editors concur with the editorial positions represented therein.

Spray Foam Magazine does not take editorial positions on particular issues; individual contributions to the magazine express the opinions of discrete authors unless explicitly labeled or otherwise stated. The inclusion of a particular piece in the magazine does not mean that individual staff members or editors concur with the editorial positions represented therein.