Sealed Air says its Madera, California, facility now has additional closed-cell polyethylene foam capacity, a move intended to improve supply for customers across North America and Latin America.
The company announced the expansion Oct. 15. It did not say how much production capacity was added or disclose the project’s cost. The release also did not specify when the added capacity began operating.
Sealed Air said the investment is meant to serve fabricators, distributors and end users through its U.S.-based manufacturing network. The company cited growing customer demand and requests from customers and fabricators for dependable access to the foam. It provided no figures showing the scale or pace of demand.
The Madera project adds capacity to a specialty foam business that Sealed Air says operates across North America, Europe and Asia. The company expects the California addition to help balance demand among those operations, improve manufacturing efficiency and support innovation.
Sealed Air identifies Ethafoam and Stratocell as closed-cell polyethylene foam products. Its product page describes Ethafoam as foam planks and Stratocell as laminated foam planks. The company says the sheet materials are used for cushioning, blocking, bracing and product protection in industrial, automotive, electronics and medical applications.
Byron Racki, president of Protective Packaging at Sealed Air, said customers and fabricators had told the company that “dependable access to closed-cell PE foam is essential.”
