Frequently asked questions

Etat'H Solide (에타솔리드) makes injection-molded plastic parts lighter. Its EcoFoam module replaces part of the plastic with dissolved nitrogen, and its EcoMold module heats the mold surface for a clean finish on foamed parts. Both are designed for the injection machines factories already run. The company was founded in Korea in 2023 and has a U.S. parent in Delaware.

Etat'H Solide's Korean operating company, 주식회사 에타솔리드, runs R&D, equipment development and production in Gyeonggi-do, Korea. Its parent, ETAT'H SOLIDE, INC., is a Delaware corporation that holds 100% of the Korean company. The U.S. business is based in Michigan, the state that builds about one in five U.S. vehicles.

Founder and CEO Damian Kang leads the company with CTO Ji-Sung Jeon, a former R&D leader at a global injection-machine maker, and Myung-Ho Kang, a plastics expert with more than 40 years in polymers and the named inventor on the granted patents. U.S. partners support market development, strategy and operations, and productization.

FlowOS is Etat'H Solide's AI harness development partner. Together they are developing an AI layer over trial data such as gas, temperature, pressure and validation results, where models suggest, code checks and engineers approve. It is partnership scope in development, not a deployed system, and nothing in the process changes without an engineer's sign-off.

EcoFoam is Etat'H Solide's supercritical-nitrogen foaming module. It doses high-pressure nitrogen into the molten plastic, where the gas dissolves into a single-phase solution. When the melt enters the mold, the pressure drop forms countless micrometre-scale cells, so part of each shot is gas instead of resin. The hardware includes a gas booster and the EcoFoam injection unit.

EcoMold is a mold-surface temperature controller. It heats the cavity surface while the part fills, then cools it quickly. A hot surface lets gas at the skin escape or re-dissolve, so the skin can replicate the polished mold instead of freezing swirl marks, and rapid cooling limits the cycle-time cost. EcoMold heats electrically, close to the cavity surface.

Foamed parts streak because gas bubbles reach the cold mold wall. Fountain flow carries bubbles at the melt front onto the wall, where they are stretched and frozen as silver swirl marks. Foamed parts also tend to look lighter in colour and less glossy. Fixing this usually means painting, sanding or a separate heat-and-cool system, the gap EcoMold is built to close.

They are designed to: both modules target the injection machines factories already run. Etat'H Solide supplies the EcoFoam injection unit and EcoMold equipment for installation on suitable customer-owned machines, and EcoMold needs a mold built or adapted for surface heating. Press, mold, interface and safety compatibility are assessed for each application, so configuration varies by part.

MuCell foams parts and Roctool heats mold surfaces; since April 2026 the two have been allied. Etat'H Solide offers foaming and electric surface heat-and-cool from one supplier, designed for existing presses, and prices part of its offer on verified savings. Its 34.3% specimen result compares with about 5–12% typically reported by vendors for foaming unchanged parts, but a specimen result is not a part result, and no head-to-head test exists.

Etat'H Solide's foam-molding technology is backed by granted patents in the U.S., Korea, Japan and China, including US 12,053,913 B2, which covers a static porous mixer that forms the gas–melt solution. The company also reports further Korean and PCT filings, and it keeps gas, temperature, pressure and validation data as trade secrets.

In a KTR specimen test in July 2025, EcoFoam cut specimen density by 34.3%, from 0.99 to 0.65 g/cm³. That is a specimen result, not a finished-part weight saving. Real reductions depend on part geometry, resin and wall thickness, and long, thin parts typically save less. The proof-of-concept programs will test it on production parts.

Foamed specimens kept 73% of their Izod impact strength in the same KTR test that showed the 34.3% density reduction, so some strength is traded for weight. Whether that matters depends on the part's load case. Under Etat'H Solide's model, each part is validated against the customer's own performance requirements in a trial before any rollout.

In an internal ABS benchmark, EcoMold raised surface gloss from 83 to 104 gloss units, a 25.3% gain over the company's conventional process. It is a separate test from the density result and is not production data. Gloss values above 100 units are possible because the measurement scale is anchored to a black-glass standard at 100.

In an illustrative company scenario, one line could save about $257,000 a year through less resin, less finishing and shorter cycles. That equals roughly 105% of an initial CAPEX of $245,000–250,000. These are gross savings before royalty and operating costs, not measured results, and actual savings depend on the part, the resin and the line.

A global top-five automotive supplier has issued a US$30,000 paid proof-of-concept order; its name is withheld under NDA. Nestlé selected Etat'H Solide for a packaging proof of concept, confirmed on 29 September 2026, with scope and terms to follow. POSCO's IMP program advanced the company to final due diligence.

Automotive and packaging come first. They are injection molding's largest markets and the sectors of the paid automotive proof-of-concept order and the packaging proof-of-concept selection. Robotics, drones, eVTOL and aerospace are planned to follow as weight-critical markets, where a lighter part can mean longer operating time or flight. Those later benefits are illustrative scenarios, and each new application needs its own customer approval.

Under its business model, customers start with a paid trial of $30,000–$100,000 per project. Successful trials lead to equipment sales plus a royalty of 20–30% of the savings the customer verifies, not of its revenue, with terms set per contract. Etat'H Solide also plans to make high-value parts on its own production lines and to sell derived products that use its machine-engineering know-how.

Etat'H Solide is targeting $300,000 of commercial milestone financing in October 2026, followed by a $3.0 million seed round in December 2026, expandable to $3.5 million. These targets are uncommitted. The investor film, decks and outlook are on the Investors page. Nothing on this site is an offer to sell securities.

Email Founder and CEO Damian Kang at damian@etathsolide.co.kr. Manufacturers can ask about a paid trial on a specific part. Investors can request patent details, including numbers, claims and chain of title, under NDA. Please include your company, the part or program you have in mind, and the resin if known.