Stylish wine storage with 3D-printed igus® springs

With a floor area of 141,000 square metres in eleven halls, the Cologne trade fair once will again be the largest furniture store in the world during the IMM. Here the creative people in the industry show their novelties. In design as well as material. 15 prospective wood technicians from the Gsechs University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg are presenting a particularly elegant wine storage series made from teak/oak, cork and slate veneer at the fair. For their furniture, they rely on lubrication-free and maintenance-free plain bearing components from igus®.

To the 2017 World Robot Olympics in Costa Rica with igus®

This year, igus® is supporting the Team Robo TV of Paul Klee High School in Overath at the World Robot Olympics in Costa Rica. The competition revolves around completing a task within a specified period of time using a Lego robot built and software programmed by the team itself.
 
Jochen Haas and Alexander Albers presented the project on WDR television. It becomes interesting as of minute 06.26: video Lokalzeit WDR.
 
Read here in the blog about how the World Robot Olympics went for the team.

Move silently with drylin® W in camera guides

It was the idea of building a camera slider capable of taking automated and moving time lapse footage and record smooth camera moves in short films that Paul Saul contacted igus®'s young engineers support. On account of its silent running and low-vibration movement of igus® linear guides, the student decided on a drylin® W rail with a suitable carriage. A stepper motor connected with the carriage through a belt drive provides for camera movement along the rail. This type of motor was chosen to achieve the greatest possible precision for positioning and at the same time high running speeds. The precision is particularly important for focus stacking and to ensure a constant distance during time lapse shooting. The dedicated student printed the camera mount and the motor mounting with his own 3D printer.

Well hidden with drylin® N

This journeyman's project consists of a piece of hallway furniture made of oak and MDF painted anthracite that has a movable worktop that permits access to a secret compartment. This invisible guide is made possible through the use of the N17 drylin® low profile linear guide system between worktop and body.

Achieve success quickly with igus® plain bearing technology in Formula Student racing cars

This year 115 teams from 25 countries competed against each other in the international constructors competition at the Hockenhein Ring. This time once more the students relied on the lubrication and maintenance-free products from motion plastics specialist igus®. Whether linear guides in the pedals, carbon shaft on dry bearings in the steering drive or rod ends in the suspension arm – igus® products can be found in a wide range of deployment scenarios.

Checkmate with the magic hand: igus® linear systems enable chess pieces to slide

Chess is one of the most popular mental exercises and it's not only fun with a game partner, but also alone. With the "Chess Buddy", Sebastian Jahn and Julian Krydl have developed a new generation of chess robots as part of their degree thesis. It responds directly to the moves of the human counterpart and shifts the pieces quite autonomously. The motor-driven inner parts of the Chess Buddy consists of two precision aluminium shafts on which lubrication-free drylin® R plain bearings allow an electromagnet to position the chess pieces by sliding smoothly and quietly.

Building bricks with ACHIM: designing a mobile manipulator sponsored by igus®

A group of students from Heidenheim were tasked with designing a mobile manipulator that is able to pick up ten wooden blocks and pile them up at a different place in the room in a device provided for this purpose. The team decide to deposit the cubes in a rail on the manipulator using a gripper. The rail assumes the function of a magazine that can store up to five cubes. As the unloading position is at a higher level, the height adjustment is provided by a lead screw drive. An additional lead screw drive ensures that the cubes are ejected in a horizontal direction. In order to be able to realise the project with a low budget, the team contacted igus® young engineers support. Together with the sales department, the team selected the drylin® E lead screw drive and the drylin® SLW lead screws with suitable bearings for the project and deployed them successfully in the manipulator, which the team christened ACHIM (Automated Cube Handling and Insertion Manipulator). The team can rightly be proud of its results: the lubrication and maintenance-free lead screws and the motors designed to match enable the manipulator to pick up the ten wooden cubes within four minutes as required, rotate and eject them at the right place.

Quickly past the finishing line thanks to printed wearing parts from igus®

In the world of Formula Student, lightweight construction and innovation are part and parcel of day-to-day business. The installation of a drag reduction system (DRS) by the Formula Student team Global Formula Racing from Friedrichshafen also required lightweight but at the same time stable and wear-resistant components, which is the reason why the team contacted young engineers support. igus® 3D printing service provided the team with the "wing inserts" – printed easily and quickly. The inserts enable a stable wing design that is movable at the same time. The precise and quick production meant that the inserts were immediately attached to the wing profile.

With iglidur® plain bearings at the German Championships

The Team McGravity sponsored by igus® took a successful 6th place in the German championships of Formula 1 at Schools. At total of 230 teams throughout Germany wanted to win the highly coveted Formula 1 in Schools cup. The team from Hamburg had already taken second place in the state championships thus securing their entry in the German championships along with 16 other teams. These championships were an opportunity for the team to compete in various categories such as fastest car or team standing.

B-Human sponsored by igus® wins Robocup German Open

The Team B-Human of the University of Bremen sponsored by igus® won once again the Robocup German Open as the best German robot football team following a tense final against the HTWK's team from Leipzig with a score of 4:1. Already in the preliminary round and in the semifinal, the team won against the competition from Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Italy. The German Champions are now preparing for the upcoming world championship in Japan, where their objective is to defend their title as World Champions.

Vice-champions with igus® polymer plain bearings

In this year's F1 in the School South-East regional championship, the Team Infinite Speed from Jakob Fugger High School took home the title of Vice-champion of Bavaria. The team from Augsburg deployed iglidur® J3 plain bearings both in the stub axles and in the front spoiler. Infinite Speed's team pits similarly won over the jury. In particular, the jury was so impressed by the idea of displaying information on the team members and the car on a touch display using barcodes they had programmed themselves that the team received the special prize for the best team stand of the senior teams from the whole of Bavaria, Hessen, Austria and the Netherlands.

igus® products help lead to victory

The Frantic Racing team from Grootmoor High Scholl in Hamburg were able to win first place for the best design with their racing car in the Hamburg state championship of Formula 1 in School. igus® supported the team both with building up the prototype and with the final car with xiros® ball bearings made of xirodur®® B180. Furthermore, plain bearings made of iglidur® G was used in the guide elements. For the Formula 1 in School races, the car is pulled on a guide string so that it remains securely on the track for the length of the course. In order to surround this cord as securely as possible, the students deployed our plain bearings on the bottom of the cars.

yes supports the interactive media facade of the "Public Brewing" project

The "Public Brewing" project is an interactive media facade on the building of the Uerige house brewery in Düsseldorf. igus® donated drylin® ZLW to ensure that virtually produced beer – with the visitors controlling the process involving the crushing of malt through to bottling by operating various buttons, pumps and handles – is also followed by the real thing emerging.

igus® goes to Hollywood

In the US movie "Space Warriors", the Moonbuggy sponsored by igus® for the NASA Rover Challenge can be seen in a prominent position on many occasions The buggy that is located in the NASA Center obviously impressed the film crew so much that they really wanted it as a prop. The link to igus®'s first Hollywood appearance and to the NASA Rover Challenge can be found here.

NASA's Moonbuggy visits igus®

The igus® Moonbuggy alongside its big brother, the original NASA Moonbuggy. The two buggies stand alongside each other in the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The German Moonbuggy team from Leipzig, who developed and built the vehicle, came to visit igus® after completing the International NASA Moonbuggy Race. igus® was not only present with bright lettering but with plastic plain bearing applications in the buggies.

Material sponsoring for student water vortex power

As part of his final paper, student Michael Roch designed and constructed a water vortex power plant test rig. It is intended to measure torque without contact by means of magnetically induced eddy currents. igus® provided him with support in the form of free products. xiros® polymer ball bearings and the drylin® linear guide were used as bearings for the driving axle of the test rig.

Formula 1 in School

Formula 1 in School is an international competition for students aged between 11 and 19. The students build a miniature balsa wood racing car driven by a gas cartridge...
The team made a conscious decision for xiros® plastic ball bearings, the benefits were obvious – light and lubrication-free.

Cooperation with Bergisch Gladbach vocational college

"The fact that lubrication and maintenance-free igus® products also have a wide range of applications in furniture is not immediately apparent", thinks Manuela Abbing, specialist teacher for wood and CAD studies at Bergisch Gladbach vocational college. Having only recently become aware of igus® products, she really wanted to find out more about them and try out how they can be used.

Checkmate with polymer bearings

igus® yes university and collect support assisted the Dresden-based junior engineers in the construction of the winning robot by providing products and expertise free of charge. These include iglidur® G polymer ball bearings, igubal® rod ends drylin® T and drylin® W linear guides and xiros® polymer ball bearings. "We wanted a reliable solution that is not only lubrication and maintenance-free but also lightweight and silent when it runs. This enabled us not only to eliminate a potential source of error but also save on weight and achieve an improved level of agility. In this way, igus® made an important contribution to our victory", says Martin Pfanne from TURAG.

robolink® project – igus® counts on young talent

For many years now, igus® has been increasingly promoting the engineers of the future and provides them with support through its university and college platform by the name of yes (young engineers support). Thanks to the ongoing search for clever and creative minds, it was possible to attract beta testers for the robolink® project, among other things.
In this project, 4 student teams had set themselves the task of developing, designing and building a drive for a multi-axis articulated arm consisting of 2 robolink® joints.

Building a copy milling machine for the sailing boat industry

Mareike Herget from Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) in Heidenheim used various products from the drylin® series to design a copy milling machine on which sailing boat rudder blades made of foam or wood can be produced on a small scale. There are plans for this machine to be provided with drives at a later date to make it possible to create free forms by means of a CNC control. The system is structured in a similar way to a 3-axis CNC portal milling machine like those commonly used in the processing of wood and plastic.

A rollercoaster for "Jugend forscht"

Jonas Adams, Matthias Willberger and Felix Lentes, tenth grade students at Kurfürst Balduin High School in Münstermaifeld, are building a miniature rollercoaster for this year's "Jugend forscht" competition; it includes a lift and we provided sponsorship as a matter of course. Plain bearings and chains were used in this project (the latter were used in the power supply for the lift).
The starting point was an optional STEM course that brings together the subjects of science, technology, mathematics. Of course, many hours of voluntary work was put into the fully functional model. Visit the three students' website by following this link. We pay our respects to such a degree of creativity and technical expertise and are pleased to be able to promote technical skills at an early age.

Visiting Nicolaus-August-Otto vocational college

Real innovation coupled with economic production and relevance to every day life is not found very often. On 10 March, seven groups consisting of 3–5 vocational school students specialising in vehicle technology and bodywork and vehicle manufacturing technology proved that they have found the right mix – at a breathtaking speed: from conception of the first idea through to construction, the students only needed 7 weeks. More on this in the blog.

The Ballbot – an innovative mover

And who invented it? Correct – the Swiss. igus® plain bearings, among other things, are being used at the ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich) to create a robot that can move freely and bend down as much as 20° while standing on a ball. This little miracle of agility is to be deployed at home or in the office. As a messenger or entertainment robot, a wide range of applications are opened up. Michael Neunert describes the progress of the BallBot as follows: "In the meantime the Ballbot is increasingly taking on shape and the mechanical parts (with the exception of the casing) have been completed and mounted. The prototype also includes the linear bearings and shafts you provided. I am pleased to say that they are working very well, as planned!" We say: any time when so much innovation is involved. The first moving pictures can be seen by following this link:

igus® makes contact to Monash Univesity in Australia

Simon Higgins, a student at the "Division of Biological Engineering" of Monash University in Clayton, Australia, asked us for assistance. For the "Australian Sychrotron", the international synchrotron radiation facility in Melbourne, he is using drylin® series products to construct a moveable seal for an x-ray device. He is currently testing which type from the drylin® series he is going to deploy.

As visitors to the SolarCar team of Bochum University of Applied Sciences

On Wednesday, 28 January, igus® as sponsor was invited to visit the final presentation of the SolarCar team at Bochum University of Applied Sciences A video diary of the Solar Challenge right across Australia was shown. Impressions, comments and pictures on the blog pages and the SolarCar team homepage (click on image)