Hard on the outside, "smart" on the inside: igus develops world's first intelligent plain bearing

The new "smart plastics" polymer bearing indicates its degree of wear in a timely manner and prevents machine and equipment failures

Plain bearings often face significant negative influences such as abrasive dust, high speeds or chemicals. To enable timely indication of wear of such plain bearings, igus has now developed the world's first intelligent bearing with iglidur high-performance plastics. This bearing provides timely warning of impending failure. Machine and equipment operators can plan maintenance, repair and component replacement in advance.

When a construction machine malfunctions, packaging equipment grinds to a halt or a wind turbine stops running because of a bearing failure, it can cause many problems for the operators of such machines and equipment. igus has therefore added the world's first intelligent plain bearing to its range of "smart plastics" products. It detects wear in advance in extremely stressful applications and sends timely signals to the operator when the bearing is in danger of failure. Maintenance work can be planned this way and operators of agricultural machinery, for example, do not face unpleasant surprises during the harvest season. "We designed smart iglidur primarily for hard-to-reach bearing points and for applications where regular maintenance intervals are not planned," explains Stefan Loockmann-Rittich, Head of the iglidur Slide Bearings Business Unit at igus GmbH.

Smart plain bearings individually designed

The body of the new smart iglidur plain bearing consists of two components: the internal, lubricant-free iglidur material and a hard polymer shell on the outside that protects the bearing. "The customer can choose the material best suited for his application. In doing so, he can choose from the complete range of iglidur materials," says Loockmann-Rittich. To measure the degree of wear, an intelligent sensor is used between the two components. The measurement data from the sensor can be integrated into their systems by machine and equipment operators in various ways. For example, it is possible to inform the operator about the wear of the sliding bearing using a warning lamp, with automatic shutdown also possible for integrated use of the sensor data. For high-end applications, the data can be sent directly to a control system, which after analysis forwards the data to a customized web interface via the icom communication module, for maintenance and repair purposes. In this way, the user can schedule maintenance and replacement using a terminal-device of their choice.