Were you sceptical about using iglidur® plastic plain bearings for such a demanding and stressful task?
Dr. Gödecke: No. A development director must recognize the opportunities offered, for instance, by the tribological plastics. This applies particularly to the advanced development of a sophisticated product like the roller chain. I was informed of the state-of-the-art technology via a network of development partners which includes igus® and was confident that we can solve problems with plastics.
Did you take part in the designing of the plastic plain bearing?
Dr. Gödecke:
Yes, our bearings are not catalog products. In the designing of the plastic bearings, we had to consider on the one hand its fully-automatic mounting, and on the other, geometric restrictions which appear in roller chains due to their standardized dimensions.
The material and the dimensional tolerances of the plain bearing were the focus of the coordination with igus®.
Dr. Gunnar Gödecke is director of the engineering division at the Wipperman jr. GmbH in Hagen
Dr. Gödecke: The successful validation of the required product features is a requisite for the production release in our development processes. So we calculate among other things the wear behavior of the chain joints on test stands for individual joints and chains, depending on the parameters chain speed and surface pressure on joints.