igus® test laboratory for plain bearings

Our plastic plain bearings are engineered to deliver long service life without additional lubrication, meeting demanding tribological requirements. Backed by over 135 trillion test movements each year in our 250 m² bearing test laboratory, materials are developed and validated under real application conditions to ensure the best polymer solution for each use case.

By optimising base polymers, solid lubricants, and reinforcements, each bearing and material is tailored for motion applications, balancing friction, wear, abrasion, tensile and static loads, and drive force across varying speeds and bearing loads.

Thanks to the intensive testing we carry out, we are very fortunate to be able to offer a 4 year guarantee on many of our products

In the iglidur® and igubal® test area, bearings and materials are tested for stress, wear and friction properties. Other parameters such as high and low temperatures, high load and speed are adjusted depending on the test. There are around 50 test systems in the test laboratory, on which more than 300 parallel tests are carried out. At the same time, we carry out around 11,300 tribological tests on the 250 or so newly developed plastic compounds every year. To ensure that the new formulations prove themselves in later use, they are not only exposed to external influences, but also to different directions of movement and loads - rotating, swivelling, linear, walking.

We also test our components for the effects of dirt, weather conditions, impacts and shocks. The results of our tests are stored in databases and incorporated into our online tool.