Pentas Moulding named Next Icon 2025
)
Marthijn Koorn
Commercial Director
We are proud to share that Pentas Moulding has been named Next Icon 2025 by Novel-T. During the fourth edition of Next Icons, held on Wednesday, May 21 in Enschede, we were given a valuable platform to showcase what we stand for as a manufacturer of plastic products: customization, innovation, and the smart use of technology.
Table of contents
Guided by hosts Cindy Marsman and Mike Verkouter, we together with Twente Medical Optics, AnGard Microwave, Reeply AI, Homemade, and Schmits Chemical Solutions had exactly 60 seconds to present our story to an audience full of entrepreneurs, investors, and innovation partners.
Our pitch: “Who wants to be lucky? – To be honest, we don’t”
That was the opening line of our pitch during Next Icons. And we mean it. At Pentas, we don’t rely on luck, but on craftsmanship, technology, and data.
As a manufacturing company from Twente, we deliver customized plastic products, including for the automotive industry. Much of the work in our factory is still done manually. With thousands of different products, the risk of errors is always present, and sending a faulty part to a customer is simply unacceptable. But inspecting every product manually isn’t feasible.
That’s why, over the past two years, we have developed our own AI vision system that monitors the assembly process in real-time. When an operator makes a mistake, the system gives immediate feedback to correct it. This way, we eliminate errors, improve processes, and maintain consistent control over quality.
The technology is based on the YOLO framework (You Only Look Once) and analyzes live video footage from the production process. Whether at the ovens or during post-processing, the system detects deviations, performs automatic safety checks, and supports operators with direct visual feedback. This leads to faster, safer, and more accurate production with demonstrable results: lower rejection rates and shorter cycle times.
Our approach has proven itself. But to scale up our AI system further and bring it to market, we are looking for a strategic partner to grow with us.
A recognition for our entire team
Being named Next Icon 2025 is a recognition of the work our team does every day. It proves that innovation, digitization, and craftsmanship go hand in hand—even in an SME environment. And we are proud of that.
