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igus test laboratory: research on 4,000m²
Proven, predictable, tested
Tech up, cost down - at igus® we manufacture our materials and products according to this motto. These offer you a long service life, which extends the service life of your machines and applications, eliminates maintenance work and reduces costs. For our engineers, the quality and safety of components, i.e. their resilience and service life, are important criteria in development. Every igus® product is extensively tested before it goes on sale. We have been operating our own test laboratory for this purpose since 1985. It is not only the largest in the industry for tribopolymers in terms of surface area, but also the one with the highest number of product tests and test procedures - and therefore the basis of our guarantee of up to 4 years.
This page offers you the following details regarding our test laboratory
What is tested?
Our entire area for application and materials testing covers over 4,000 m². Each business unit has its own test laboratory and some product areas are tested together:
- 2,000 m² outdoor area for energy chain and chainflex® cable with particularly long travel distances
- 1,500 m² test area for chainflex® cable in our own energy chain
- 300 m² test area for iglidur® plain bearings, drylin® linear bearings and Low Cost Automation - the latter partly under real conditions in quality assurance
- NEW: 200 m² test area for igus:bike® and bicycle components
In order to be able to develop new cleanroom-compatible products more quickly, we operate our own cleanroom laboratory with an ISO class 1 cleanroom system in collaboration with the Fraunhofer IPA. An outdoor test area, a laboratory for noise tests and the climatic chamber at -40 °C, which is feared by igus® employees, complete our test area. For maximum realism, we also test customer applications and carry out industry tests.
We also test your application
You don't want to experiment and subject your application to a material test before use? Or do you have an unusual application for which a suitable component needs to be found? No problem! We will test your application in our test laboratory and use our expertise to find the best igus® solution for you. Whether plain bearing, energy chain, cable, linear technology, bar stock or Low Cost Automation.
How many tests are carried out in the igus® laboratory?
Every year, an impressive number of tests and material tests are carried out on our 742 test systems:
- Over 15,000 tests in total, including around 4,000 on e-chain® and chainflex® and around 11,000 on dry-tech® (rotating, swivelling, linear, walking, heated, underwater, etc.).
- 10 billion e-chain® cycles
- 3,500 tested cables
- 1,000 customised tests
- Up to 800 parallel tests
What happens to the test data?
The use of the data from the test procedures does not stop after development. Since 2001, we have been developing innovative online tools and, since 2016, sensor-based smart plastic based on the database of our test laboratory results. With these tools, the cost-effectiveness and safety of our products can be determined easily, quickly and around the clock online. This gives our customers a high level of transparency and enables them to find the cost-effective, functional solution to their problem. More than 40 tools are available to you free of charge, including the service life calculator, configurators for product comparison, product finders, product configurators and CAD configurators, as well as our predictive maintenance with i.Cee.
Virtual discovery tour through the laboratory
Would you like to take a look around our laboratory? No problem: you can explore all areas from the comfort of your own home or office on a virtual tour. Simply click on the button below, select the desired laboratory area on the start page and follow the arrows to the next viewing point. Click on the numbers to find out more about the tested product.
