Polymer developer and bearings specialist igus presented the results of its fifth manus competition for plastic plain bearings at an awards ceremony during the recent Hanover Trade show. The expert judging panel was overwhelmed by the 301 entries received from 28 countries around the world.
Due to the enormous success of previous manus competitions, the contest for design engineers accepted entries from all over the world for the first time this year, in cooperation with academic partners such as the Institute for Composite Materials. The search was on again for innovative applications using lubricant- and maintenance-free plastic bearings that stand distinguished by technical or economic efficiency and creativity. Any applications using a solid plastic plain bearing and plastic compounds was eligible for entry, but not applications using plastic-coated bearings.
Around 80 entries were received for the last manus competition, which accepted entries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This year, the judges noted exactly 301 entries from all over the world: including the USA, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Korea, Iran, the Republic of Lebanon, and across Europe.
Gold: Hygienic design for Spanish omelettes: The judges awarded the gold manus award and prize money of 5,000 euros to Carmelo Lagunas, a design engineer from Tuleda in Spain, for his machine which produces potato omelettes.
Silver: Portuguese blade strikes stones with great impact: The silver manus award and 2,500 euros went to Marco Portocarrero from the company Produlex Lda in Caminha near Porto. His newly developed disc mower has self-sharpening blades that can even cut through thin tree trunks during forest clearing work.
Bronze: Wear-free fingers: The bronze manus award and 1,000 euro prize money went to Dr. Stefan Schulz, Managing Director of Vincent Systems GmbH in Weingarten, Germany, a company that specialises in medical prostheses and robots. The company developed a hand prosthesis with power-driven fingers.
