The starting signal has been given, the igus:bike® is on a world tour. To celebrate igus’s 60th birthday, the innovative, bright orange bicycle made from recycled plastic will be travelling the world for a whole year. The aim: to familiarise industry partners, media representatives and consumers with a new form of urban mobility that combines a fun ride with sustainability. The urban bike represents many of the advantages of igus products, the “motion plastics”: it does not rust, requires no oil and is virtually maintenance-free. The ball bearings, drive and freewheel also do not need lubricating as they are made from high-performance plastics. At the same time, the igus:bike is an example of how the transformation to a sustainable circular economy of plastics can succeed.
With the new ReBeL Move, which the Cologne-based motion plastics specialist is presenting at Motek 2024, igus proves that the automation of material-handling processes doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. The mobile robot moves autonomously through factory halls, transporting products from one place to another. It can also be combined with the ReBeL Cobot made of high-performance plastic. It only takes users with even the most basic IT skills an hour to commission and is available – including the ReBeL Cobot – for €34,808 (prices may differ in your country).
With the igus Mobile Shore Power Outlet (iMSPO), igus has developed a mobile connection system for shore power supply that can be positioned at any location along the terminal where a ship is berthed. This solution, which is already in use at the Port of Hamburg, received the “Ports and Harbor Innovation of the Year” award at the Electric & Hybrid Marine Expo Europe 2024 in Amsterdam.
The motion plastics specialist igus has released the latest version of its readycable finder, an online tool that makes it much easier to select the suitable drive cable. Users can find the right cable with the appropriate quality at the most favourable price with just one entry. The integrated chainflex service life calculator also reliably predicts how long the cable will last.
A hackathon took place at the igus headquarters in Cologne in mid-September. In line with the motto “Artificial intelligence meets robotics”, 17 participants worked in three interdisciplinary teams to develop advanced automation solutions for logistics. The aim of the hackathon was to create an automated method for packing up pizzas using a large language model (LLM for short) based on AI. The event was organised in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS, the University of Bonn, the Lamarr Institute and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML.