The Desma in-house exhibition will take place again on September 24 and 25, 2025 in Achim near Bremen. The shoe machine manufacturer has announced that it will be presenting the new SCF (Super Critical Foaming) sole technology there. This is a process in which a medium that is gaseous at room temperature – in this case nitrogen or CO2 – is injected into a hot thermoplastic material under high pressure and mixed. When it is subsequently injected into the mold, the lower counterpressure creates a microcellular foam. This should enable the production of soles that are lightweight and have good cushioning and resilience. Thermoplastic polyurethane is particularly well suited to this technology, which is purely physical and therefore particularly environmentally friendly. Other advantages include a lower scrap rate and an overall higher output, i.e. more soles per unit of time.
The technology is intended to help shoe manufacturers meet the growing demands on sports, running and hiking shoes. The demands on performance, weight, cushioning and recyclability as well as design diversity are constantly increasing, says Desma. The light and high-performance soles would expand the possibilities of shoe production in this regard. Desma has been working on the technology for several years, says Desma Managing Director Klaus Freese: “The result is a technology that works reliably and robustly thanks to ‘German engineering’.” Managing Director Christian Decker adds: “The advantages of the production system presented lie in the very sensitive process control resulting in homogeneous components with a uniform surface, the cost-effectiveness and scalability of the entire system.”
Other technologies that will be presented at the Desma in-house exhibition include particle dosing, which is intended to add sustainability to direct soling. Granulated production waste or functional additives are added to reduce the consumption of new material. Desma’s Multi Section Injection, on the other hand, is intended to be a step towards producing customized shoes in an economically efficient manner. The technology is intended to make it possible to change the physical properties within a midsole by injecting material into different areas in segments in order to achieve different properties, such as a different hardness from section to section. AI tools are intended to make the process more dynamic and are offered by Desma in conjunction with customer requests and ideas.