Igus’ wound tribo plain bearings reduce wear in heavy-duty applications

Lubrication-free, heavy-duty, wear-resistant: the new heavy-duty material iglidur TX2 saves costs and extends the service life in construction and agricultural machinery. (Source: igus GmbH)

Motion plastics specialist igus has developed new bearings for heavy-duty applications in the construction machinery or agricultural industry.

igus now has the new tribo-material iglidur TX2 in its product range, which works without lubrication. Even small excavators still need 50 litres of lubricant every year. The company says its wound plain bearing bushings withstand very strong forces and increase wear resistance by a factor of 3.5 in load ranges with more than 100 MPa surface pressure.

The construction or mining industries are exposed to challenging environmental conditions every day. Cold, heat, dust and dirt have a strong effect on the bearing points. igus says it offers an alternative to frequently used metallic solutions with its plain bearing technology. Another material combination for wound bushings complements the range of injection-moulded bearings in the heavy-duty range.

High load, low wear
The tribo plain bearings made of high-strength filament fabric are used where very high loads occur. Here, the extremely strong filament in its specially interwoven design ensures maximum resistance and enables a maximum permissible compressive strength of 400 MPa.

The newly developed material was extensively tested on the indoor and outdoor test rigs in the 3,800 square metre igus test laboratory. Pivot tests on hard-chrome shafts showed that iglidur TX2 is around 3.5 times more wear-resistant than the standard heavy-duty material TX1.

Like all iglidur plain bearings, iglidur TX2 is self-lubricating and operates dry. This prevents dirt from adhering to the bearing points. This reduces maintenance and repair costs, as well as machine failures due to insufficient lubrication. As the material is also very resistant to temperature, chemicals and moisture, plain bearings made of iglidur TX2 can be used in many other areas. Due to the freedom from corrosion and seawater resistance, they can also be used, for example, in moving applications in the maritime sector. Diameters of up to 2,800 millimetres are feasible. In any case, the application of iglidur TX2 takes into account increased sustainability requirements, both underwater and onshore.

“For example, according to the operators, even a small excavator needs between 50 and 60 litres of lubricants per year”, clarifies Stefan Loockmann-Rittich, head of the iglidur Plain Bearing Technology Business Unit at igus.”Since the iglidur TX2 bearings do not need lubrication, the customer benefits threefold: not only saving costs for oil or grease and maintenance time, but also no lubricant is released into the environment.” iglidur TX2 is available as a standard product range in the diameters 20 to 80 millimetres directly from stock.