Cash prizes for winners
September 1st 2005 igus UK launched the manus plastic plain bearing design contest last year to promote new and original ways of implementing plastic bearings and to promote awareness of their benefits Winners received cash prizes totalling £4000.
Entrants were encouraged to detail what benefits, such as technical advancements, cost savings, or increased life span, resulted from using plastic bearings.
Lock Inspection Systems is a manufacturer of inspection equipment for the food, pharmaceutical, chemical, textile and packaging industries. This encompasses metal detectors, checkweighers and combination systems. The company entered one of its metal detectors into the manus competition.
The metal detector was experiencing wear problems due to friction build up between the conveyor belts and fixed steel shafts. The friction was causing the plastic belt on the metal detector’s conveyor to become contaminated with particles from the metallic bearings used. The metal detector was then falsely triggered. To solve this problem, Lock Inspection Systems decided to fit a series of igus iglidur® J plastic sleeve bearings along all four nose bars.
Now, if there is any friction present, the closest bearing turns.
Any friction is therefore eliminated between the belt & nose bar. The bearings do not have to turn constantly, which prolongs their lifetime. They are also cheaper than stainless steel ball bearings. This solution could only otherwise have been replaced by costly, bespoke machined roller designs.
The manus plastic plain bearing design competition is set to run again in 2006. More articles from igus (UK) Limited: | 
