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The U.K.’s , developer of EcoCore foam core technology for lightweight and reusable packaging in partnership with Austria’s (U.S. office in Port Murray, N.J.), and Las Vegas-based Westfall Technik Inc., a global holding company that provides innovative plastics manufacturing solutions to the healthcare, packaging and consumer goods industries, have entered into a license agreement. The new deal enables Westfall to promote Bockatech’s EcoCore technology to key prospects in the U.S., with options to extend the partnership to toolmaking and mass production for the nominated applications. Optimized for use with Borealis’ PP, EcoCore  is said to create packaging and other products with skin-foam-skin walls instantly, increasing strength, reducing material use, cutting cycle times and boosting thermal protection.

EcoCore skin-foam-skin wall.

Because EcoCore entails the use of  PP and injection molding with only modifications to the component design, there’s a minimum of investment in new equipment. According to Bockatech sources, the process produces items with skin-foam-skin walls (skin sandwich) almost instantly. Skins reportedly form rapidly on the surface of components after injection and as they’re ejected from the mold. Foaming. using either chemical or gas blowing agents, then takes place in the core between the two skins.

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What makes EcoCore different from normal foam molding is speed—cycle times well below 10 sec., and density reduction—up to 70%. The company says the cycle times for moldings using EcoCore are the same as those made from solid plastic and up to 80% less than other foam core products.

Asked about the patented part of this process, company sources say it involves the molding surface forms necessary that allow significant density reduction rapidly in a controlled manner. They refer to this informally as “form controlled free expansion” (FCFE), an area of foam molding design on which the Bockatech team has been working on for several years.

Commenting on why they opted to work with Bockatech's innovative technology, Westfall’s chief growth officer Jim Berklas said, "EcoCore is a very versatile technology with many high value applications in food service, food retail, industrial chemicals and healthcare. We work with some of the best-known brands in the world and are always on the lookout for new technologies that will give them a significant competitive advantage. The ability of EcoCore to create thermal barriers to protect consumers from hot as well as cold food, lightweight single use packaging and create more sustainable low-cost reusables, gives brands the opportunity to stand out from the crowd."

The EcoCore platform technology has a wide variety of packaging applications including food service (e.g. to-go cups), food retail (e.g. microwave meals and noodle pots), healthcare (e.g. medicine and sharps containers) and industrial (e.g. pails, tubs and paint containers).