With 277 motion plastics innovations in 2025, igus is presenting a record number of new lubrication-free plastic products in line with the motto "GO ZERO Lubrication",  from PTFE-free materials and a complete energy chain series made of recycled materials to a new type of dry cleanroom certificate and a humanoid robot. This is the result of continuous investment in research and development to offer customers solutions. Despite the challenging geopolitical and economic situation in 2024, the motion plastics specialist was able to increase the number of active customers by 5% and maintain its billion-euro turnover. With sales of €1.105 billion, the company recorded a comparatively moderate decline in turnover of 2.5%.

"The changing political and economic conditions didn't leave us entirely unaffected," explains Tobias Vogel, CEO- Plain Bearings and Linear Technology, igus. "Like many of our customers, we are also focusing on savings and increased efficiency, e.g. through increased automation in our factory. However, our focus is always on the question: What's in it for the customer?. These challenges are an even greater incentive for us to break new ground and prove our innovative strength 'made in Germany' to reinforce both our competitiveness and that of our customers."

This year, igus is presenting a record number of innovations with 277 new motion plastics products - and is continuing to invest in the research, development and production of new, innovative technical solutions.

"In the last five years, we have invested over 350 million euros in Cologne alone - in land, buildings, state-of-the-art machines, software, new products, people and marketing," says Vogel.

The entire igus campus in Cologne, where they produce, test and research, now covers around 218,000m2. With the new 20,000m2 production hall, our test laboratory, which is the largest in the industry, has also grown to almost 5,500m2.

Global investments for even greater customer proximity

"The customer is at the centre of all our activities. For this reason, our investments are deliberately close to our customers," emphasises Michael Blass, CEO- e-chain systems, igus.

For example, igus is expanding its branch in Shanghai from around 25,000 to 70,000m2 with a new building. In Bangalore, the production area has even been tripled thanks to a new 16,000m2 igus campus. After introducing injection moulding in the USA, they are now also setting up on-site lead screw production and have opened our own RBTX customer testing area for low-cost robotics. This means that ten countries now have their own customer test areas so that users can quickly and easily find their individual low cost automation solution on site. Three of these locations (USA, China, Brazil) will be expanded into regional hubs, so that production and development will also be increasingly localised. They are also investing in the expansion of branches in other countries such as Japan, Spain, Taiwan and Poland.

However, igus is clearly focusing on customer proximity in Germany. With the takeover of elko Verbindungstechnik, igus is building up targeted assembly capacities in southern Germany. elko specialises in assembling cables and plug-in connectors into customer-specific systems that are used primarily in machine tools and the automotive industry. At the Cologne site, igus is also continuing to invest in new automation solutions to streamline processes and increase throughput times - be it with specifically developed and patented crimp towers or the use of AGVs in the factory buildings.

igus has currently reached the 92% mark of its target to be CO2-neutral with its buildings and production by the end of 2025, measured against Scopes 1 and 2. "We need to become even better in this area and are working on numerous sustainability measures, from the new multi-storey car park with complete façade greening to the modernisation of our existing buildings, e.g. with photovoltaic systems, to the expansion of our MHRS system for heating with waste heat from machines," explains Blass.

However, sustainability must also be an integral part of product innovations. This is why igus is presenting environmentally friendly solutions such as PTFE-free versions of the iglidur standard plain bearing materials G, X and H at Hannover Messe 2025 - with the same performance at almost the same price. Regarding energy chains, the igus is also converting its entire E2.1 series to recycled material consisting of post-consumer recyclate, such as old fishing nets, and disused energy chains, which the company recycles as part of its own "Chainge" programme. This reduces the CO2 footprint by 80%. With the igus Mobile Shore Power Outlet (iMSPO), igus has also developed a mobile "socket" for the shore power supply of container and cruise ships. The system is already in use in ports such as Hamburg, Rotterdam and Singapore and has been nominated for this year's Hermes Award of the German Trade Show. igus is also driving forward innovative solutions for dry cleanrooms, which is becoming increasingly important in battery production. Together with the Fraunhofer IPA, the company has developed a new type of certificate that confirms the cleanroom suitability of igus e-chains in long-term tests. They can withstand over 15 million double strokes with minimal and consistent particle emissions.

At a time when more and more companies are having to make savings, igus is also investing in the development of particularly cost-effective products for its customers. This includes the new energy chain glide-chain G4.42 for simple gliding applications, e.g. on indoor cranes, with travels of up to 30m. Thanks to its optimised design, it is not only 12 to 25% lighter, but also 30 to 40% more cost-effective than standard chains of the same dimensions from the E2 and E4 product range. igus also demonstrates that there is still plenty of potential for innovation in German industry with its Low Cost Automation development work. The company is currently developing its first humanoid robot made of high-performance plastic. It is based on the mobile robot ReBeL Move and uses ReBeL cobots for its robot arms. This means that it can be used flexibly and from any location at different workstations - with a return on investment of less than one year.