Whether in food-vending machines, laboratory equipment or electric doors: whenever space is at a premium, designers often dispense with guides for individual moving cables – and thus risk cable damage and unnecessary maintenance costs. A new, one-piece, injection-moulded and particularly compact energy chain made of high-performance plastic from igus is designed to put things right. As this product is currently still a design study, the Cologne-based motion plastics specialist is now looking for interested companies that would like to use the energy supply systems in pilot projects and develop them further to series production.
Driving through the desert with solar power! The Sonnenwagen team from RWTH Aachen University and Aachen University of Applied Sciences demonstrates its viability. Students have built a solar car with lightweight and robust components made of lubrication-free high-performance plastics from igus and have thus taken on the ultimate challenge: the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2025, the toughest solar rally in the world. The team fought its way to fourth place on the 3,000-kilometre route across Australia. A triumph for German engineering and sustainable mobility.
Owning a car is becoming less and less important for many young people in cities. Studies show that the proportion of pedestrians and bicycles is increasing significantly, especially in urban areas. The car as a status symbol is losing its appeal – instead, the focus is shifting to sustainable, flexible and low-maintenance mobility solutions. JetBike GmbH from Braunschweig is embracing this change and presenting a pioneering solution with the JetBike: an innovative combination of e-bike and car. To fulfil the requirements regarding sustainability and ease of maintenance, the company relies on lubrication-free polymer bearings from igus.
A faulty power connection on a lorry ramp can bring the entire logistics process to a standstill. Cable reels with slip rings are a common weak point. With the e-spool flex, igus is launching a new type of solution that does not require slip rings (which are susceptible to faults) and allows for a reliable power supply – even under harsh conditions.
igus is expanding its range of harnessed readycable for moving industrial applications. New additions to the portfolio are cables with plug connections for systems from Keyence, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of automation and quality assurance solutions. Designers can immediately connect the ready-to-connect cables to moving high-speed cameras using the plug-and-play principle, for example, and thus make them even more fail-safe – without time-consuming and error-prone in-house designs.