Have a creative application for a plastic bearing? 12th manus awards are now open

By Paul Heney | September 16, 2024

Engineers around the world are invited to apply for the 12th manus award in 2025. For more than two decades, the German manufacturer igus has been honoring applications that feature bold and sustainable use of plastic plain bearings. The winners will receive prize money of up to €5,000.

The pressure on engineers in their day-to-day work is constantly increasing. It’s all about cost efficiency and continuously improving products’ carbon footprints. One thing that can help is to dispense with lubricants.

“In a recent study with RWTH Aachen University, we were able to prove for the first time how successfully lubrication-free plastic bearings master both challenges compared to conventional lubricated metal bearings,” said Tobias Vogel, CEO Plain Bearings & Linear Technology at igus. Polymer plain bearings with integrated solid lubricants make it possible to improve the environmental balance and economic efficiency of products and eliminate the risk of pollution. “With the 12th manus award, we are therefore particularly interested in finding out how companies around the world manage to dispense with traditional metal plain bearings. Where were polymer plain bearings able to technically improve the application? And what were the ecological and economic effects?”

The manus award has developed into an increasingly important international event. In 2023, igus received 480 entries from 36 countries. J&M Manufacturing, an American company, received the golden manus for an agricultural plough equipped with lubrication-free, environmentally friendly polymer plain bearings. The silver manus went to the French company Aufratech for an exoskeleton that enables fatigue-free operation of high-pressure cleaners. Fiedler Maschinenbau und Technikvertrieb GmbH won the bronze manus for a new type of high-pressure cleaner for municipal vehicles. Rockinger Agriculture GmbH, which has developed a maintenance-free and lubrication-free ball coupling for loader wagons, manure spreaders, tippers and field sprayers, was delighted to receive the green manus award.

Independent jury honors courage and creativityEngineers can now apply for the 12th manus award. All applications with plain bearings, linear plain bearings and spherical plain bearings made of solid plastic or plastic compounds are accepted. At least one functional version of the device must be available, in which the technical benefits as well as the ecological and economic advantages of the plastic bearings can be recognised. The winners are chosen by an independent jury of experts from research, trade press, and industry, and once again include Paul J. Heney, VP and Editorial Director of Design World. The judges place emphasis on courage and creativity. The deadline for entries is January 17, 2025.

Terms and conditions, the application form and an overview of previous winners can be found at www.igus.eu/manus.