Small, corrosion-free and made of plastic: the plain bearing. An unimposing machine element, it is rarely in the limelight, so a joint initiative started by igus, the motion plastics specialist, awards up to €5,000 to the most exciting and creative plain bearing projects every two years. This year, 480 entries were received from 36 countries.
Machines have to work reliably around the clock in such areas as material handling. Warehouses are getting bigger, and increasing mast heights mean high demands on the cables. To ensure trouble-free operation even in demanding hanging applications, igus has developed the CFSPECIAL.192 hybrid cable. It is the only cable on the market specifically for hanging applications in e-chains, suitable for SEW-EURODRIVE’s MOVILINK DDI. A high-tensile aramid support element in the cable jacket allows mast heights five times that of standard cables.
Stressed automotive designers and
buyers can breathe a sigh of relief. If they needed an injection mould for a special component suitable for series production and resistant to wear at short notice, they previously had to wait up to six weeks. Time that igus has now reduced to just seven days – with a service called FastLine. With the iglidur designer, customers can quickly order the tribo-optimised plain bearing. In just four steps, the required part is configured online and ordered from igus.
To be able to safely guide large hoses, igus has now developed a new extender crossbar design for its E4Q modular energy chain series. With the help of an adapter system, the chain can be individually adapted to the hose diameter. The tool-free E4Q opening mechanism ensures easy installation and filling of the energy supply.
gus is stepping up the pace of Low Cost Automation and making entry into automation easier and more affordable than ever before. The interaction of inexpensive hardware and digital innovation puts the future of automation within reach. Here is some evidence for this: the ReBeLmini, a cobot for 3,999 euros and the RBTXperience software for easy commercial robot programming. The virtual iguversum offers the perfect playground to get robot applications and programming up and running with ease and then make them a reality.