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Plain bearings for prostheses and orthoses

Lightweight, robust and low-wear

Prosthetics and orthotics braces are intended to make life easier and increase personal mobility; the requirements they have to meet are correspondingly high. The material must withstand the considerable loads placed on it and not be so heavy that it makes the wearer tired.

It must be capable of being used everywhere: during swimming in salt or chlorine water, in sand, at high and low temperatures. It must be ensured that creams and medical products cannot impair the functionality of the material or place undue stress on it. Bearings made of polymers from igus® are made for precisely such applications and are ideal for constructions with demanding requirements.

Would you like more information about parts used in prosthetics? Our experts will be happy to get in touch with you.

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Products often used with prostheses and orthoses

iglidur W300 plain bearings

iglidur W300

  • For particularly long service life in continuous operation
  • Low coefficient of friction,
  • Extremely high abrasion resistance
  • Suitable for rough shafts and stainless steel shafts
  • Dirt resistant
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iglidur bar stock

iglidur Plastic rod

  • A large range of iglidur® materials available as plastic rod, tubes, sheets and plates
  • Currently 25 high-performance materials to choose from
  • Cut to required size
  • No cutting costs
  • Machining with no minimum order quantity
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Various special bearings customised by igus to your specific requirements

Customised component

  • No minimum order quantity
  • Rapid production
  • Suitable for prototypes as well as small and high volume production
  • Large selection of high-performance materials available.
  • Support for your design requirements
Special and drawing parts
Medical technology sample box

Free sample box

Test our energy supply systems and bearing technology for medical technology yourself; they improve the performance of your equipment whilst lowering costs.

You can find more information about the contents of the box at the Medibox info page.

Order a sample box now

Customer application examples

Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH knee joint prosthesis with iglidur piston rings
Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH knee joint prosthesis with iglidur piston rings

Plastic bearings ensure greater safety for knee joint prostheses
Ottobock relies on our lubrication-free iglidur W300 and Q bearings and iglidur J guide rings in its knee joint prostheses. They replace previously used metal bearings and PTFE strips, which led to functional problems after a short time and became a safety risk.

Hip joint prosthesis with iglidur bearings by Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH

Switching to plastic bearings makes the movement of sports leg prostheses smoother
The "TT Pro" from Blatchford is an adapter for leg prostheses that are used for sporting activities such as golf. Switching from metal bearings to our extremely robust iglidur Z bearings has resulted in less stiffness and therefore greater comfort for the owner.

More about this application
Fingers of a Vincent Systems GmbH hand prosthesis with iglidur plain bearings

Further success stories
Discover how our motion plastics products are used in other prostheses/orthoses as well as other mobility applications such as wheelchairs, fitness and rehabilitation equipment in this selection of application examples sorted by area of use...................

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Tested in the igus test laboratory with regard to service life and wear

All products are tested for wear and load capacity under real-life conditions in the igus test laboratory, the largest in the industry. The results are incorporated into our online tools for service life calculation and enable exact predictions of durability.

Upon request, igus performs customer tests to check product use under specific conditions.

More about the igus test laboratory

More information

Dedicated brochure for prostheses & ortheses

Product brochure as PDF
All important information about our products and services for prostheses & orthoses.

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igus online tools on your tablet

igus online tools
Configure required product online, calculate service life, reduce process costs

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Medical technology

Related website: Medical technology
Plastic solutions for X-ray robots, laboratory equipment, wheelchairs, medical furniture, ...

To the Medical Technology website

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Seán Ryan
Seán Ryan086 0329555Submit form

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