With a floor area of 141,000 square metres in eleven halls, the Cologne trade fair once again became the largest furniture store in the world during the IMM. Here the creative people in the industry showed their novelties – in design as well as materials. 15 prospective wood technicians from the Gsechs University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg presented a very elegant wine storage series made from teak/oak, cork and slate veneer at the fair. They use in their furniture lubrication-free and maintenance-free plain bearing components from igus.

The IMM Cologne took place this year from 15 to 21 January. Various companies and designers presented their new designs to a worldwide audience. Hamburger wood technicians of the Gsechs University class also were among the presenters. In their luggage, the 15 students had a wine storage series called Dolio, the term deriving from the Latin word "dolium" (barrel). The project idea for the series was created by a task entitled "Unusually open". After various prototypes, a small series of 20 pieces of furniture was developed and manufactured within a few months. Dolio is a vertical bottle storage for wines, in which five bottles can be turned via a lid. A slate-veneered door with steel fittings that pivots 360 degrees around the body closes the system. To make sure that the door glides as well as possible, the wood technicians used the iglidur B160 Tribo-Tape on the steel fittings. These liners are characterised by, among other things, their extreme wear resistance and their low coefficient of friction. To lock the door, the wood technicians decided to make springs themselves in addition. "After some testing, we decided to print the spring clips with the iglidur I150 filament from igus," explains Jorrit Burmeister. "The plastic material was very tough and easy to work with, and it was also very wear-resistant, withstanding the constant loads in the Dolio."

Lubrication-free wear parts easily printed

In addition to iglidur I150, the motion plastics specialist igus has five other lubrication-free and maintenance-free iglidur Tribo-Filaments for a wide range of applications - for example, where permanent load or chemical resistance is required. Common to all is that they are characterised by high abrasion resistance and are up to 50 times more wear-resistant than standard materials for the 3D print. The 3D print with the Tribo-Filaments from igus is a good option especially in the production of complex moving wear parts in small batches. For customers who do not have their own 3D printer, igus offers a 3D printing service for wear parts, made from both the iglidur Tribo-Filament and its own laser sintered materials iglidur I3 and iglidur I6 specifically for gears. Customers can upload their data, choose the material, calculate prices and order their individual wear-resistant parts directly online.