MuCell Extrusion gets exclusive license for Dow flat sheet extruded resin patent portfolio

Officials from MuCell Extrusion LLC and Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, MI) recently concluded an agreement for MuCell Extrusion LLC to acquire Dow Chemical's patent portfolio for flat sheet extrusion of polyolefin resins, and gives MuCell Extrusion and its customers exclusive rights to the Dow patents related to flat sheet technology for a wide variety of applications. In a related announcement, MuCell Extrusion signed a license agreement with EDV Packaging Solutions, S.A., of Barcelona, Spain, who will utilize MuCell Extrusion's expanded technology offering to produce foamed polypropylene barrier sheets for food packaging applications throughout Europe.

"We provide expertise in process development and co-development programs, and Dow offers formulation expertise in resins. We believe this combination will bring significant benefits to our customers," said Mark Lindenfelzer, President of MuCell Extrusion LLC. All of the relevant intellectual property has now been bundled into one source, which should bring some much needed clarity to the marketplace. The combination of our own patents and intellectual property and Dow's patents now allow customers the opportunity to apply the most advanced foaming technology to develop, produce and sell products.
 
"This agreement," said Jordi Pursals, President of EDV Packaging Solutions, S.A., "combined with EDV Packaging's coextrusion expertise, will allow us to make a giant step in offering a new range of foamed polypropylene sheets with EVOH to EDV's customers, both food producers and brand owners. These materials will make a difference in reducing packaging weight and therefore environmental impact."

The immediate effect of MuCell Extrusion's newly enhanced technology offering is that, by using supercritical fluids (SCF) as a foaming agent, the customers will be able to produce cleaner foams which allow for significantly lower densities and tighter cell structure versus chemical foaming alternatives.

MuCell technology is based on the direct injection of atmospheric gas (N2 or CO2) in its supercritical state. Injection during the supercritical state allows for a single-phase gas/polymer solution. Microcellular structure and controlled product density is achieved by the accurate control of gas concentration in combination with the proper release of extrusion pressure. MuCell has applied this technology to most plastic materials and processes. Polyolefins, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), nylon, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), urethanes, polystyrene (PS), fluoropolymers, and many copolymers have been used extensively with MuCell technology. Rigid sheet, low-density flexible sheet, film, pipe/tubing, and blow molding manufacturing processes are also compatible with MuCell technology.

MuCell Extrusion LLC's innovative and accessible technology brings significant material weight-savings and cost reduction opportunities, without compromising physical product performance to a broad range of applications within the plastics manufacturing industry.