The benefits of an injection-molded cycle frame are obvious – manufacturing is swift (just pop them out of mold every minute or so), and they won’t rust. Complex shapes can also be achieved.

Plastic Innovation of Austria is hoping to resurrect the 1980s idea of injection-molded cycle frames. Such frames used to snap, made by companies which flopped in more ways than one.

Haitian International is expanding its production and logistics network in Europe and is investing around €100m in the construction of a modern plant in Ruma, Serbia. Up to 2,500 injection moulding machines will be produced and customised each year in Haitian’s new production facilities.

Graphics in the video above show that Plastic Innovation has been working wih Peugeot to produce CAD drawings of its proposed frames, which could be made from recycled plastics.

Construction in Ruma will start in winter 2022 and should be completed in early 2025. The production facility will cover the entire range of Haitian's servo-hydraulic injection moulding machines: Mars and Jupiter series with clamping forces from 600 to 33,000 kN.

However, many of the frames and plastic components snapped in use, most of the parts were proprietary and therefore difficult replace, and the Itera was said to be uncomfortable to ride. Nevertheless, it’s estimated that in the four years the Itera was made 30,000 units were sold around the world.

So, if Plastic Innovation GmbH has truly figured out a way to mass-produce rideable, long-lasting, non-floppy injection-molded cycle frames it would be on to a winner. As reported by Cycling Industry News, the company has already won an award: its “bicycle of the future” concept bagged an Austrian Greenstart gong.

Zhang Bin, Deputy CEO of Haitian Group and Executive Director of Haitian International, said: "Ruma is ideally located for us to serve each market in Europe directly and provide local customer services. Ruma is also interesting for other divisions because we are gaining good experience with our emerging technology cluster in Shunde (China). With highly efficient synergies within the Haitian Group across the entire production depth, we can make advantages directly usable for our customers, for example for automation solutions, MES systems or individual production systems for lean production.”

The area of ​​the new location covers a total of 365,000 square metres, most of which is intended for the production and assembly, sales and logistics of the injection moulding machines. The remaining area is reserved for strategic developments such as co-operation within the Haitian Group.

The group recently announced that it would build new infrastructure and locations in order to sustainably strengthen its international competitiveness. By expanding its overseas portfolio, Haitian also wants to position itself against rising transport costs and logistic congestion. The Serbian city of Ruma is a central transport hub for the main axes of important logistics connections in Europe.

"The business model of Plastic Innovation GmbH combines two major innovations," claims the company. "The implementation of the bicycle industry’s new method of manufacturing frames using injection molding together with the innovative business model of rethinking bicycle design."

The company’s website is yet to be populated. However, from the awards information it appears that the company is seeking to mainly license its technology rather than make its own products. "The awareness of the new design options must first be created at the OEMs," says a company blurb.

Haitian’s new technology cluster and headquarters for southern China in Shunde will serve as a model for the site in Ruma, Serbia.

The most famous plastic bicycle (if we discount carbon composite bicycle frames, that is) was the Itera bicycle of Sweden. This was born from a massive 1978 grant from the Swedish National Board for Technical Development. By 1980 a rideable bicycle – of sorts – was demonstrated by the Itera Development Center AB, and in the following year the first mass-produced Itera bikes were shown to prospective retailers and to the press.

In fact, injection moulding has a long history in bicycle manufacturing. One of the first was made from injection-molded Lexan in 1973. The Original Plastic Bike Inc had been founded in 1971, and took out magazine adverts, but it sold very few, if any, of its proposed products.

"Our services accompany the customer from the design to the manufacturing process in the sense of integral planning with the aim of placing the product on the market in the best possible way."