AbstractThe effect of saturated aliphatic fatty acids and a number of fluorinated polar organic compounds on the release of polyurethane foam from cold rolled steel has been investigated. Little release was observed with aliphatic acids of less than 10 carbons or with the organic compounds. Release behavior increased with aliphatic chain length from C12 to C18. Stearic acid release increased only marginally above 0.034 μ g/cm2. Infrared studies of demolded eluted surfaces indicated that stcaric acid at levels of up to 178 μ g/cm2 was apparently removed from the surface by foam.