Steve Braig will lead Trexel Inc.

Commenting on the change in a company statement, Bernstein said, "We have been seeking a strong leader to address the company's accelerating global growth over the coming years, and Steve is the perfect individual to take Trexel forward."

Braig presided over Engel North America during a period in which the company "right-sized" itself for the changing North American injection molding sector. That entailed closing a large manufacturing facility in Guelph, ON, and consolidating regional production resources and company headquarters in Engel's York, PA facility. In all, he brings 20 years of P&L responsibility in the plastics, automotive, and packaging sectors to his new post with Trexel.

Trexel started in business by taking over development of the microcellular technology invented at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA), and making significant investments to commercialize the MuCell technology to its present position of wide use around the globe.

Braig said, "I am extremely excited in having the opportunity to lead Trexel to a higher level of growth. There is no other plastic processing innovation in the last couple of decades that has revolutionized thermoplastic part design as much as the MuCell process. We can support the automotive industry's drive to lower vehicle weight and improved fuel economy, amongst other applications."

Trexel says that, when a part is designed for the MuCell process, material and weight savings can be 20% to 30%, and the molded part can have less warpage, greater dimensional stability, better processing time, and could also allow use of a lower-cost material.