Frequently Asked Questions

Introducing foam to an injection molded part brings many advantages…greener, lighter, and lower cost through reduced material consumption and faster cycle times as well as better quality and dimensional stability through lower pressure and stress in molding. With over 20 years focused on foaming injection-molded parts, Trexel has been involved in thousands of foaming applications with virtually every material family. We understand how to make an application a success with foaming, and we also understand which applications will fail to deliver desired results. In 20+ years we have learned from many failures and converted those learnings into many successes. Our technology has evolved along with our know-how. We are 100% focused on foaming, and we are committed to making your application a complete success.

Trexel is primarily a supplier of physical foaming equipment (MuCell®) and chemical foaming agents (TecoCell®). While we have some molding capacity for trial purposes, we do not normally provide injection molding services except in very special, short-term cases.

No. The purchase price of our foaming systems includes royalty-free access to our patent portfolio.

As a supplier of both chemical and physical foaming solutions, Trexel is uniquely qualified to help you choose the best technology for your application and situation. Contact us  for a consultation. For additional information, please take a look at our blog post on the subject.

No. A MuCell® system purchased through any of our licensed partners is supplied and can be supported by Trexel. We work very closely with our licensed partners to deliver the right MuCell® system for your application. Purchasing a new injection molding machine equipped with MuCell® holds many advantages over a retrofit, as the machine can be built as MuCell®-capable at the beginning, eliminating the need for a retrofit of the control system and plasticizing unit.
It starts with a phone call to your nearest Trexel rep. Depending on the information we receive in this initial conversation, we may choose to send a technician to do a survey in the field of your machine to determine the scope of a retrofit. We rarely find an injection molding machine that we can’t retrofit!

For TecoCell, simply contact us and we can arrange a sample along with a molding guide to help you run a trial on your own equipment. For MuCell, Trexel is equipped to run molding trials in our own facilities and also to organize a trial in a partner facility. Contact us to discuss your trial needs and we can find the best solution.

No. MuCell® Extrusion and Trexel were all one company, but Zotefoams purchased the extrusion business from Trexel and now runs MuCell® Extrusion as one of their divisions. Trexel is focused on injection molding and automotive blow molding applications, although we are open to looking at extrusion applications for our TecoCell® product.

We have successfully foamed virtually every polymer type. The only limitation is Liquid Crystal Polymer. The low-solubility of supercritical fluid in LCP limits applications to larger shot sizes only for this material.