Gas-assist suppliers strike cross-license agreement

Cinpres Gas Injection Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI) and Alliance Gas Systems (Chesterfield Twp., MI) have announced an agreement to cross license each company’s U.S. patents and patent applications. The agreements cover Alliance’s Backspill process and Cinpres’ Plastic Expulsion Process (PEP), with sub-licensing rights for both companies.
The Backspill and PEP processes were developed in the late 1990s when both companies were working on methods to improve techniques of expelling plastic from mold cavities by gas injection. Both companies arrived at similar but not identical solutions, and both filed U.S. patents. The PEP and Backspill methods allow a molder to fill the product cavity and then pressurize the plastic before opening the valve(s) to enable the expulsion of the plastic melt. To prevent future conflict with CGI’s Full Shot molding patent, CGI is including this method when used with Backspill and PEP in its license to AGS.