Major Breakthrough | HERIC Supercritical Injection Molding Foaming Technology: Solving Key Challenges in the Footwear Materials Industry

China’s footwear materials industry is undergoing a critical phase of transformation and upgrading. As the world’s largest footwear production hub, the Chinese footwear materials sector is projected to exceed 420 billion CNY in market value by 2025, accounting for 32% of the global market share. Yet the industry faces significant challenges: the “dual carbon” goals mandate a 13.5% reduction in energy consumption per unit of industrial output by 2025 compared to 2020 levels; tightening environmental regulations are accelerating the phase-out of traditional chemical foaming processes; and weak technical capabilities among Chinese footwear manufacturers are severely constraining the pace of technological advancement within the industry.

Against this backdrop, Professor HE Yadong’s research team at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, collaborating with over ten domestic enterprises, including Chuangbo, successfully completed the commissioning trial of high-foaming shoe sole molding using HERIC supercritical fluid injection molding technology in July 2025. This marks a major breakthrough for China in the supercritical foaming injection molding sector. The technology not only breaks the technical monopoly held by international companies but also provides critical support for the green transformation and smart manufacturing of China’s footwear materials industry.

The Three Critical Challenges Facing China’s Footwear Materials Industry

Escalating Environmental Pressures and Carbon Reduction Mandates

As the “dual carbon” strategy advances, the footwear materials industry faces unprecedented environmental pressure. According to the latest policy requirements, by 2025, key footwear and apparel enterprises must reduce unit product energy consumption by 15% and increase water reuse rates to over 85%. More critically, each pair of shoes generates an average of 1.2 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions and 0.8 cubic meters of wastewater during production, with chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations exceeding safety thresholds in 30% of cases.

Low Production Efficiency and Rising Labor Costs

China’s footwear materials industry has long suffered from labor-intensive processes, complex workflows, and inefficient intermittent production cycles. Traditional shoe manufacturing typically requires six or more processing steps, with production cycles measured in hours or even days. The autoclave pressure foaming small beads to large beads process requires at least six steps, with the pressure foaming of two soles alone taking 1–4 hours. The autoclave bead foaming process for popcorn foam (ETPU) requires seven or more steps, with the curing phase alone taking days, resulting in an overall cycle of 1–2 days. The industry’s automation rate falls short of 30%, with labor costs accounting for 40% of total production costs—20 percentage points higher than major Southeast Asian competitors. Small and medium-sized footwear material businesses achieve only 110–130 pairs per worker per day, representing a 160% gap compared to automated production lines, while equipment utilization rates fall below 50%.

Severe Constraints on Industrial Upgrading due to International Technological Monopolies

HERIC Technology: The Critical Breakthrough Solving Industry Challenges

Core Innovation

The core innovation of HERIC technology lies in integrating the advantages of extrusion, injection molding, and batch foaming processes, creating a unified system that achieves simultaneous foaming and molding. This approach completely resolves the three major pain points of traditional processes.

Technical Principle

1. After material melting, supercritical fluid is injected into the polymer; through shear dispersion and mixing, the supercritical fluid rapidly dissolves in the polymer melt, forming a single-phase solution.
2. The gas-saturated melt is injected into the mold through injection molding, where rapid pressure reduction triggers bubble nucleation.
3. Through precise cooling rate control, bubble nuclei expand and solidify, creating a uniform microporous structure.

Technological Advantages

1. Technology Independence: Completely self-developed with no reliance on foreign technology restrictions.
2. Cost Advantage: Equipment investment is only one-half to one-third that of comparable international systems.
3. Responsive Local Support: The localized service ecosystem enables rapid response to customer needs.
4. Continuous Innovation: Backed by Beijing University of Chemical Technology’s research platform, the technology undergoes continuous iteration and upgrade.

Technical Specifications

1. Density Control: Minimum density achievable at 0.10 g/cm³, delivering extreme lightweight properties while maintaining superior performance characteristics.
2. Elasticity and Rebound: Product energy return rates reach 63–77%, significantly enhancing wearing comfort.
3. Production Efficiency: Foaming and molding done in a single step with integrated shape control, achieving production rates of ≥1 pair per minute, far exceeding the 15–20 minutes per pair of traditional small to large foaming process and the 8–12 minutes per pair of bead foaming process.
4. Environmental Benefits: HERIC demonstrates critical environmental value under the “dual carbon” agenda, as it is a physical foaming technology delivering genuine green manufacturing with zero VOC emissions, 95% raw material utilization, and 100% recyclability.
5. Material Compatibility: Compatible with multiple high-performance thermoplastic elastomers, including TPU, TPEE, and TPAE, achieving foaming expansion ratios exceeding 9 times after material modification, far surpassing traditional methods like MuCell (≤2.24) and Core-Back molding (≤4.44).
6. Process Simplification: Substantially streamlines previously lengthy, complex production sequences, compressing production cycles from days or hours to minute-level timeframes.

Market Prospects and Economic Impact Analysis

Market Demand

The Chinese footwear materials market is experiencing explosive growth in demand for supercritical fluid foam injection molding technology. According to the latest data, in 2024, supercritical foaming processes accounted for over 30% of athletic shoe midsole production, with demand reaching approximately 140,000 tons—a year-on-year increase of 42.8%. By 2025, the Chinese high-end functional footwear materials market is projected to exceed 42 billion CNY, with an annual compound growth rate of 14.2%.

In terms of market capacity, China’s footwear materials industry generates annual revenues exceeding 1 trillion CNY, with a yearly output of nearly 13 billion pairs. Preliminary estimates suggest that if HERIC technology captures a 10% market share, it would require at least 300 unit installations, corresponding to an equipment market size of approximately 1.5 billion CNY.

Return on Investment Analysis

The economic benefits analysis of investing in HERIC equipment is as follows:

Building a New Future for the Footwear Materials Industry Together

The successful development of HERIC supercritical fluid injection molding technology for high-foam shoe sole production represents not only a significant milestone in technological innovation for China’s footwear materials industry but also a pivotal force driving the sector’s green transformation and high-quality development. Against the backdrop of increasingly stringent “dual carbon” goals and environmental regulations, this technology offers enterprises an eco-friendly, efficient, and cost-effective development pathway.

For footwear materials manufacturers, HERIC technology represents the direction of future development. Beyond enabling companies to meet escalating environmental compliance standards, it strengthens market competitiveness through enhanced efficiency and reduced costs. Particularly in the current context of international technology monopolies, rising raw material costs, and intensifying environmental pressures, mastering HERIC technology will become essential for enterprises pursuing transformation and upgrade.

Looking ahead, as the technology matures and market demand continues to expand, HERIC technology is positioned to capture over 20% of the mid-to-high-end footwear materials market within 3–5 years, driving related industry growth exceeding 10 billion CNY. Through close collaboration between academia, industry, research, and applications, HERIC technology will make significant contributions to high-quality development in China’s footwear materials sector.

If you are interested in HERIC technology, please feel free to contact us to explore collaboration opportunities and work together to create a brighter future for the footwear materials industry!