After a slightly positive half of 2025, the Tederic Machinery team expects an upturn in the injection moulding market in 2026, with the new INNOVA 250 being key to it. BP&R spoke with Dr. Daniel Ammer, Vice President of R&D, and Michael Haskell, Tederic UK Director, about the collaborative effort behind this innovation and its key technical advantages.
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[GD] The INNOVA 250 has made its debut at K. Can you take me through the four-year R&D?
[DA] The story starts with the foundation of PlastiVation Machinery GmbH in Germany, which was created alongside an investment company. The latter stepped out after three years, meaning PlastiVation is now 100% Tederic-owned subsidiary.
The primary goal from the beginning was to close the gap in our portfolio. Tederic can’t offer machinery for the packaging industry with cycle times of under 5 seconds. The company’s product range typically includes a full line-up for the other industries, but doesn’t have any machinery that meets the above requirements for packaging applications. Once that was addressed, we started focusing on the design, asking ourselves, ‘How should it look?’. This is when we joined forces with the Chinese team.
[GD] How did this collaborative effort evolve?
[DA] The German development team is based in Munich, and Tederic’s development team is based in Hangzhou, China. We reached out to them because we wanted a stable, rigid and cost-effective mechanical machine design, which is a standout feature of Chinese manufacturing. However, we needed to combine it with the right technology, from drives and pumps to hydraulics and controls. The decision was driven by some of our European partners.
This was the merging philosophy all along: the German team and the Chinese team work alongside each other through every step of the process. It’s all about teamwork. It’s essential that the designer who is working on the part is based in the factory where the part is manufactured, so they can create the best possible product.
Over these past four years, we’ve travelled to China several times to establish the machine’s foundation, from the castings to final assembly.
[GD] What are some of INNOVA 250’s key technical features?
[DA] The INNOVA 250 is a hybrid machine – electro and hydraulic – boasting a highly rigid mechanical performance. This makes for long-lasting durability of both the machine itself and the mould. It has a direct drive electric motor for the screw rotation, hence the plasticising system, a direct drive for the toggle-clamp system and two hydraulic axes. The first is for the high-speed injection, boasting a very precise control system, while the second is for the auxiliary functions like the ejector, the nozzle function and so on.
All four drives are combined into one TC link rail system to achieve the best power consumption. This is crucial, especially for the toggle system. You feed a lot of energy back because you accelerate auxiliary breaks, just like electric vehicles in the city, and you want to be able to use this braking energy, not waste it elsewhere.
Energy efficiency was a key concept when building the machine, which is why we designed a specific triple drive set combination with a big TC link capacity buffer. Customers benefit from an accumulator-assisted closed-loop-control injection system with an injection speed of 700 mm/s, helping them lower cycle times and energy costs while achieving consistent product quality. The series also features an optimised control platform featuring a user-friendly UI design.
[GD] At K, INNOVA 250 is producing bottle caps with a clamping force of 250 tons. What other possible applications are in the pipeline for the series?
[MH] At K, INNOVA 250 makes 24 bottle caps (which weigh 1.25 grams) in 2.9 seconds per cycle with a clamping force of 250 tons, significantly boosting productivity. The 24-cavity mould from Z-MOULDS ensures smooth, uninterrupted moulding of the closures. HDPE (high-density polyethylene) is used as a raw material. The injection is not so thin and the wall is not so critical, making for the lowest cycle time.
Because it enjoys a modular design, it’s suitable for other fast-cycle or thin-wall packaging applications, including food containers and medical disposables. It’ll cover clamping forces from 2,500 to 6,500 kN, while supporting future adaptations for IML and automation integration.
Our goal was to offer plastics processors a high-performance machine that could help them manufacture packaging products efficiently and intelligently at a reasonable price.
[GD] What does it mean to you to be able to exhibit the new INNOVA 250 on such a global stage like K Show?
[DA] You can compare this feeling to when your children learn how to walk or finish school. You’re so proud of them because they’re your babies and you’ve seen them grow. Launching a machine like this is like a baby; you carry it with you for such a long time and now it’s out there with the world. Everyone has responded well to it and we’re gathering customers’ feedback to make it even better.