The manus award is a joint initiative which the plastics specialist igus announces every two years. More than 3,000 contestants from across the globe have entered the competition in recent years, which honours the creative use of polymer plain bearings in industrial applications. This year, the manus award celebrates its tenth anniversary. A good reason to look back: what has become of the last nine winners and their projects? The Industrieanzeiger made enquiries
In 2007, the manus jury awarded the gold manus award to a splitting machine for leather production, "Autosplit-D3". Unfavourable environmental conditions such as humidity, greases and chemicals combined with high processing speed requirements and, above all, accuracy were the prerequisites for this application. When developing the machine, the responsible engineering office decided on the extensive use of polymer plain bearings, which work reliably in these conditions. Altogether, 239 iglidur plain bearings were installed. We spoke to the inventor of the leather splitting machine, Dr. Dorstewitz.