Tribological polymer coatings – less wear, better sliding

For this application, springs were coated with an iglidur coating material and used for guidance of window blinds. The manufacturer was faced with the problem that lubricants did not last over the entire service life of the blinds. So he tested the springs with an iglidur IC-02 coating.Although the springs touched the aluminium housing in the test, the coated spring survived the housing. In addition, there was no noise generation by the springs in the test. Thanks to the coating, the use of grease can now be completely eliminated.

Our customer, a manufacturer of office chairs, used to use components made of a POM material for the armrests. Since the friction of this material was too high, he decided on an alternative from igus: Moulded aluminium linear guides combined with sliding elements made of iglidur J massively reduced the friction. The customer used to coat the aluminium channels with a clear PTFE colour, which was both expensive and required a long handling time.

So he tested our IC-02 coating powder, which additionally reduced friction and was also more cost effective. The manufacturing process has thus taken a step forward: The components are now coated directly with IC-02 and no subsequent painting is required. The same contractor coats the inside with IC-02 and then paints the outside for a better look.