As a global benchmark for innovation in the plastics and rubber industries, CHINAPLAS has become the premier platform for companies to debut their cutting-edge technologies. At the recently concluded CHINAPLAS 2025, multiple award-winning companies from the Adsale Plastics Network’s “Top Ten Technology Trends in Plastics and Rubber in 2025” showcased their winning innovations in full scale at their booths. 

CHINAPLAS serves as a debut platform for many companies' innovative technologies. 

To delve deeper into these technological breakthroughs, the judging committee conducted in-depth interviews with the award-winning companies during the exhibition. Adsale Plastics Network will systematically analyze the innovations of the winning technologies through a series of reports. This report focuses on two major areas: smart injection molding and auxiliary technologies; automation and smart manufacturing technologies. 

Analysis of the award-winning technologies

1. Leap in large-scale additive manufacturing 

KraussMaffei’s powerPrint 3D printing system won the “Industry Leadership Award” in the category of Intelligent Injection Molding and Auxiliary Technologies. This technology addresses the challenges of industrial-scale large-format additive manufacturing by adopting fused granulate fabrication (FGF) with an extruder as the core, enabling rapid and precise small-batch production of large, complex components. 

KraussMaffei’s 3D printing LearningPod and workstation showcased at CHINAPLAS 2025. 

According to KraussMaffei, the powerPrint features a thermally insulated, large-format vacuum printing chamber, making it particularly suitable for high-temperature materials like PEI used in aerospace components. The specially designed nozzle enables ultra-high-speed stable extrusion at 70 kg/h under ideal conditions—far exceeding the industry average of 20-30 kg/h. The maximum product size achievable is 10 m³, making it ideal for rapid prototyping in aerospace, tooling, and design.

2. Upgraded smart injection molding control system 

In the area of intelligent injection molding, precise screw control and end-to-end data management serve as core technological drivers, advancing injection molding toward high precision, flexibility, and sustainability. 

DEMAG NINGBO’s ActiveFlowBalance intelligent filling balance solution was awarded the "Industry Leadership Award" in the category of Intelligent Injection Molding and Auxiliary Technologies. By integrating low-inertia servo motors and direct-drive technology, the screw instantly locks into position upon reaching the designated injection point. Natural pressure regulation within the mold ensures precise cavity filling, enabling accurate replication of every product in each cycle. 

Wittmann Group’s all-in-one smart injection molding equipment, awarded the "Industry Pioneer Award" in the category of Intelligent Injection Molding and Auxiliary Technologies, integrates injection molding machine, robotic manipulator and automation, mold temperature controller, dehumidifying dryer, mixer, granulator, water separator, MES production management system, and centralized material handling. Its proprietary Wittmann 4.0 smart communication technology enables end-to-end coordination for efficient, intelligent solutions. 

Wittmann showcased its all-in-one intelligent injection molding equipment at CHINAPLAS 2025. 

3. Breakthroughs in multi-color injection molding process integration 

Among the award-winning solutions in the category of Intelligent Injection Molding and Auxiliary Technologies, companies like Yizumi, Hongrita and Deeplus enhanced injection efficiency and significantly saved production space by optimizing molds and injection unit layouts for multi-color and multi-material molding. 

Yizumi’s four-color injection molding solution for a leading automotive parts supplier adopts a double-layer parallel layout to mold four differently colored products in a single cycle. The process accommodates both large and small shot volumes, enabling modular configuration of colors and shot sizes through four plasticizing units. 

The solution not only offers modularity and compactness but also reduces runner length and injection time. It won the "Industry Pioneer Award" in the category of Intelligent Injection Molding and Auxiliary Technologies.

At CHINAPLAS 2025, Hongrita debuted its "Multi-Material Stacked Rotating Mold," which won the "Breakthrough lnnovation Award" in the category of Intelligent Injection Molding and Auxiliary Technologies. The solution uses a servo motor to drive horizontal rotation, minimizing space requirements and enabling high-speed, high-yield multi-color/material molding without large-tonnage machines. With this mold, machines of the same tonnage can double the output of multi-color/material products. 

Deeplus’ Micro LSR Two-Color Auxiliary Injection Unit, also an innovation award winner, converts single-color injection machines into LSR two-color machines by adding an independent auxiliary unit. 

The auxiliary unit features an independent drive/control system and a plunger-type injection mechanism for micro LSR molding (max. shot: 60cc). It is compatible with any single-color machine, enabling rapid mold installation for two-color molding (engineering plastic + LSR). 

Deeplus's micro liquid silicone rubber two-color auxiliary injection unit displayed at CHINAPLAS 2025. 

4. Evolution of intelligent inspection technologies 

As the "industrial eye" for value-added efficiency, modern vision inspection systems combine optics, X-rays, HD cameras, AI algorithms, and deep learning to achieve high-speed, high-precision detection. 

Adsale Plastics Network has noted that the latest vision inspection is enhancing accuracy through multi-technology integration, AI self-learning, fully self-developed hardware, and closed-loop control. 

SIKORA’s plastic pellet cleanliness inspection and sorting system uses proprietary optical + X-ray technology to simultaneously identify and sort impurities (metal/organic contaminants). 

Its innovation lies in a stainless steel vibrating chute to prevent leakage/secondary pollution caused by traditional material conveying systems, while blue light + full-scatter lighting improves impurity detection, especially for transparent pellets.

SIKORA’s plastic pellet cleanliness inspection and sorting system exhibited at CHINAPLAS 2025.

Sikora’s CENTERWAVE 6000 uses millimeter-wave transceivers for non-contact 360° pipe measurement, automatically identifying material refractive index without pre-set parameters or material/temperature constraints. Its auto-feedback enables quick startup, saving materials and time.

Sikora’s CENTERWAVE 6000.

Sikora’s two solutions above won "Industry Leadership Award" in the category of Automation and Smart Manufacturing Technologies of the “Top Ten Technology Trends in Plastics and Rubber in 2025”.

YUZEN’s AI vision system, which was awarded the "Industry Pioneer Award" in the category of Automation and Smart Manufacturing Technologies, requires no defective samples from clients. Instead, it autonomously analyzes all production line images, builds AI models, and accurately identifies/removes previously unseen defects. 

YUZEN’s AI vision system exhibited at CHINAPLAS 2025. 

Good Vision & Motion has adopted a self-developed full stack, 800m/min high-speed inspection system, featuring self-designed lighting with high current, high precision and constant current, as well as a host with embedded graphics processing algorithms, replacing imported equipment. It’s reportedly the only system with self-developed fiber-optic cameras (10Gbps transmission), enabling multi-station consolidated detection. 

Good Vision & Motion’s self-developed full stack, 800m/min high-speed inspection system. 

PackSys Global’s capLAB, an online integrated system using proprietary cutting technology, tests tamper-evident (TE) bands and reads cavity numbers under closed-loop conditions for improved QC and cost savings. It specifically targets tethered caps, halting production via mold/machine communication upon critical defects. 

PackSys Global showcased the application of the capLAB system solution at CHINAPLAS 2025.