igus presented the material “iglidur Q2” last year, a high load plain bearing which is more durable by a factor of 2 to 5 in harsh environmental conditions than the other 40 plain bearing materials of the company. Based on this material, the limits of performance of injection-moulded plastic bearings could be once again altered with a clever multi-component system: in comparison with iglidur Q2, the new iglidur Q2E (=enclosed) reaches in igus internal pan tests a higher lifetime by a factor of 3 at a radial load at 180 MPa.
For this reason a two-component bearing of 30 mm length and 25 mm diameter can take loads of about 13.7 tons. This is equivalent to the weight of two full-grown bull elephants. The bearing consists of a hard polymer shell and a tribo-optimized core made of iglidur Q2 that is also stable in shape and wear-resistant even under high loads. Similar to an exoskeleton, the shell provides the bearing with high stability and makes for an increased lifetime. In addition to that there is the corrosion and maintenance freedom that can increase the productivity in many applications, especially compared to metallic solutions, because downtimes for service or repair can be renounced. iglidur Q2E is initially available for shaft diameters of 20, 25, 30 and 40 mm.
