Based on the results of several thousand empirical tests, we are now able to provide
you with reliable answers to almost all inquiries about the service life of iglidur®
- plain bearings. We can also recommend the most appropriate shaft material using
the results from our testing database.
Fit it and Forget it
First Class Materials in the
Injection Moulding Process
Very few basic materials can be modified and adapted as well as thermoplastics. Thermoplastics
can be provided with lubricants, reinforced mechanically by the addition of technical
fibres, or varied by additional filling materials, especially with regard to friction
and wear behavior.
Excellent polymers, improved by precise additions of reinforcing materials and lubricants,
tested a thousand times and proven a million times.
Each year, igus® engineers develop more than one hundred new plastic compounds
and test maintenance free plain bearings in more than 5,000 experiments per year.
That's how in recent years they have built an extensive database of the tribological
properties of polymers.
This database makes it possible for us to better assess most of the applications
in advance, to calculate the expected service life, and provide our customer with
confidence during use.
iglidur® - Plain Bearings Made of High Performance Polymers
These components are not applied in layers, but instead are mixed together homogeneously.
The advantage of this design is clear once the requirements of the surface bearing
are explained:
The coefficient of friction, which is determined especially by the surface of the
bearing, should be as small as possible.
The surface may not be removed by forces that act on the bearing
The wearing force acts especially on the surface of the bearing, for this the bearing
must be capable of high resistance.
There is no such thing as a single, universal material that performs all of these
functions well.
iglidur® - Self-lubrication-Effect
Hard shells with soft coating. Each lubricated bearing works according to this principle,
and likewise a number of maintenance-free bearings that are equipped with special
slide layers. However, this soft slide layer is not strong enough. For high loads,
edge pressure or oscillations, it becomes removed.
A choice of 26 different iglidur® materials for bearings ranging from all-round through
FDA-compliant to high-temperature.
Maintenance-free and lubrication-free spherical bearings in various designs and configurations.
Whether as an upright pivot or flange bearing, igubal® suits all requirements and
is more economical and lighter than conventional spherical bearings,
Plastic linear bearing for nearly all types of application. Whether miniature or
self-adjusting whether round or angular Drylin®
linear bearings are maintenance-free, lubrication -free and can often be used as
perfect substitutes for conventional, circulating ball bushings and profile guides.
One component of the iglidur® materials acts for each function of the bearing:
The base polymers are responsible for the resistance to wear
Fibres and filling materials reinforce the bearing so that high forces or edge loads
are possible
Solid lubricants lubricate the bearing independently and prevent friction of the
system.
iglidur® Plain Bearings Function Differently
Predictable life cycle -
No lubricant necessary
Install and leave!
Polymer Bearings
Plain bearings
Linear bearings
Pillow block bearings
Spherical bearings
Flange bearings
Rod End Bearings
The solid lubricants are, as microscopically small particles, embedded in millions
of tiny chambers of the mostly fibre reinforced material. From those chambers, the
plain bearings release tiny amounts of solid lubricants during movement.
The solid lubricants help to lower the coefficient of friction of the iglidur® bearing.
Since they are embedded in the tiny chambers, they cannot be pressed out. They are
always there as soon as the bearing or the shaft is set in motion.
Self-Lubrication
igus® develops materials that are well suited to the different requirements of maintenance
free plain bearings:
. Plain bearings must, at times over many years, receive high loads.
. Maintenance-free plain bearings should have low coefficients of friction.
. Their wear resistance should ensure that they can be used for a long time.
Both in material development as well as in the design of bearings, former disadvantages
of plastics can be greatly reduced. Thus iglidur® plain bearings are thin walled
and some materials have especially high thermal conductivity. Both features help
to rapidly dissipate heat and thus directly Increase the load capacity of the bearing.
Plain Bearings -
Long Service Life at Low Cost
The radial pressure with which the bearings are loaded is received by the polymer
base material. In the contact area, this material provides a support to the shaft.
The polymer base material ensures that the lubricants do not receive a surface pressure
that is too high. The base material is also reinforced by technical fibres or filling
materials. These additional materials stabilize the bearing especially in cases of
continuous load.
Base Polymers and Technical Fibres
Above and beyond the general properties, each iglidur® bearing material has a series
of particular properties that create its suitability for certain applications and
requirements. You'll find a detailed description of the materials in the following
chapters along with a complete list of existing dimensions.
Properties of iglidur® Bearings
In the starting phase, the shaft and the iglidur® plain bearing become mated to one
another. During this phase, the surfaces of both materials are adjusted to each other.
The specific pressure of the system drops since the contact surfaces of the shaft
and bearing expand , during the start-up. At the same time, the rate of wear decreases
and approaches a linear curve. In this phase, the coefficients of friction are changing
until finally reaching a value that to a large extent is constant.
The Start-up Phase
The high performance polymers of the iglidur® plain bearing are composed of:
