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.

Products often used with prostheses and orthoses

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 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

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.

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Customer application examples

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