Global sales of plastic extrusion products based on MuCell Extrusion (Woburn, Massachusetts / USA; www.mucellextrusion.com) technology have exceeded USD 100m over a 12-month period for the first time, according to the company’s president, Mark Lindenfelzer. “A surge in sales of blow-moulded automotive ductwork by our customer Kyoraku in Japan, combined with growth in the packaging industry, really pushed us over the top as we wrapped up the first half of 2014,” Lindenfelzer said.

In the packaging sector, agreements with major producers Dow Chemical (Midland, Michigan / USA; www.dow.com) and Styron (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania / USA; www.styron.com) for exclusive rights to certain blown film and flat sheet extrusion foaming patents have spearheaded growth in the use of MuCell’s technology. “As our business expands into the packaging market we are seeing a paradigm shift in two ways: applications are more readily translated and more scalable from one market to the next and our customers are more open about the use of our technology as part of their overall corporate sustainability strategies,” Lindenfelzer commented.

Currently, customers from outside the packaging industry generate 80% of sales of products using MuCell Extrusion technology, in applications such as seals and gaskets, automotive ductwork, pipes, wire coating, profiles and tubing, amongst others.

MuCell Extrusion is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based Zotefoams (Croydon; www.zotefoams.com).