Igus USA Inc. (USA, a division of igus GmbH, Germany), along with engineering faculty judges from the University of Rhode Island, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an editor of Design News magazine, recently announced the winners of igus' First Annual manus contest.

The manus (Latin for "hand") contest is a plastic bearing design contest, targeting igus customers. Igus said, "the contest is designed to promote new and original ways of implementing plastic bearings as well as to promote awareness of the benefits of plastic bearings to a wider audience of potential users. Manus will also showcase the most challenging applications, honoring those with the courage and tenacity to implement plastic bearings."

The contest was open to, "Any organization optimizing plastic plain bearings in new or existing applications ... bearings must be all-plastic or plastic compound. Plastic-coated bearings will not be considered."

As proof of feasibility, the entry had to be in production or at least in the form of a working prototype.

One industry observer told eBearing, "While you could obviously forget about entering non-igus bearings, and you have to wonder about their reference to 'courage ... to implement plastic bearings,' the concept and end result are interesting anyway."

Entries were open from mid-October 2003 through the end of January 2004. The three winners -- with cash prizes of $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000, respectively -- were announced at the recent U.S. National Design Engineering Show.

First Place

First place was awarded to Six Flags Magic Mountain Theme Parks of Valencia, California.


X at Six Flags Magic Mountain


The relatively new "X" roller coaster, designed by Arrow Dynamics, uses igus' iglide Z plastic bearings in pivot wheel bogies that turn seats in excess of 360 degrees on a vertical plane.

Design engineers said expected maintenance is reduced in the application by 95% and the cost of replacement parts was cut by 54%

Second Place

Second place went to Harriston Industries of Minto, North Dakota. Harriston used igus' iglide J bearings in the pick arm of an automatic potato planter.


Harriston potato planter


The previous design had used oil-impregnated bronze bushings. However, they experienced problems related to environmentally-driven corrosion in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes, and abrasive contamination from volcanic ash concentrations in Washington and Oregon.

Harriston said the service life of the plastic bearings is five to six times longer than the bronze units, and had a cost savings of between 70% and 80%.

Third Place

Third place was awarded to Nova Biomedical of Waltham, Massachusetts, for its immunoassay equipment.

Nova used igus DryLin bearings in the two-axis tray and DryLin linear slides on the 3-axis probe. A corrosive atmosphere, high temperatures, combined with the need for a lubricant-free and contaminant-free solution, were compounded by the complex equipment not being user-servicable.

Nova said igus bearings gave it the only lubricant-free, long-life solution for the application.












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