Following its introduction at “K ´98” and the first issue of a license to an injection moulding machine manufacturer in June 1999, Trexel Inc. (45 Sixth Road, Woburn, MA 01801 / USA) has succeeded in winning a number of other machine construction companies as licensees for its microcellular foam process (“MuCell”). It is part of the company´s strategy that plastics processors also conclude a separate agreement to use the technology.

After signing on the first smaller US licensees, Trexel now appears to have made a major breakthrough with some of the larger companies. The big automotive suppliers Inoac, Johnson Controls Interior (JCI), Magna Eybl, MIG Plastics and Takagi Seiko have applied for licenses to use the MuCell process in conjunction with the purchase of injection moulding units from Engel, Husky and JSW. For the tier one suppliers, the key factors for using the new technology are the reduction in costs through the saving of materials, the shortening of cycle times and, above all, the potential for reducing component weight, said JCI´s Dr. Oliver Becker in a recent statement. Trexel is hoping that the application of MuCell in car manufacture – always a very demanding industry – will drive additional new areas of application.