igus is a German manufacturer and distributor of technical products made of

high-performance plastics High-performance plastics are plastics that meet higher requirements than ''standard'' or ''engineering'' plastics. They are more expensive and used in smaller amounts. Definition High performance plastics differ from standard plastics and eng ...

, including plastic

plain bearings A plain bearing, or more commonly sliding contact bearing and slide bearing (in railroading sometimes called a solid bearing, journal bearing, or friction bearing), is the simplest type of bearing, comprising just a bearing surface and no rolli ...

flexible cable Flexible cables, or 'continuous-flex' cables, are electrical cables specially designed to cope with the tight bending radii and physical stress In continuum mechanics, stress is a physical quantity. It is a quantity that describes the magn ...

s, energy chains, connectors, robotic components,

3D-printed 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...

products and

ball bearing A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races. The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this ...

History

Günter Blase established igus on 15 October 1964 in his double garage in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. For the first 20 years the company worked as a supplier of complex technical polymer components. However, in 1983 Günter Blase's son, Frank Blase, established reinforced plastic cable-carrier systems and

injection moulded Injection moulding (U.S. spelling: injection molding) is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting molten material into a mould, or mold. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials mainly including metals (for ...

polymer bearings as two distinct product groups and set up a network of sales engineers. Between 1985 and 2018, igus has grown from 40 to around 3500 employees distributed between the head office in Germany and 38 subsidiary companies around the world. igus also has representative partners in more than 21 other countries. igus uses the term ''triboplastics'' to describe its injection-molded polymers. They are tribologically optimized material compounds designed for low wear and long life and form the basis for all igus' products and systems.

igus UK

igus UK opened in 1991 in

Daventry Daventry ( , historically ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority in Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 Census Daventry had a population of 28,123, making ...

, Northampton. In 2000, the office moved to

Moulton Park Moulton Park is a large industrial estate near the village of Moulton, Northamptonshire a few miles north of the town of Northampton. Business park Nationwide Building Society have a main office on the business park, near to the BLC Leather T ...

, and in 2006 to

Brackmills Hardingstone is a village in Northamptonshire, England. It is on the southern edge of Northampton, and now forms a suburb of the town. It is about from the town centre. The Newport Pagnell road (the B526, formerly part of the A50) separates ...

. The office was extended in 2017. The UK subsidiary stocks approximately 6 million parts, and has around 100 employees across the United Kingdom and Ireland. igus UK has been certified for the ISO 9001:2015 Certificate of Approval, applicable to "supply and technical support for igus the-echain systems, chainflex cables and readychain, igus dry-tech and accessories".

South-east Asia

igus Singapore Pte Ltd was established in 1997 and is the headquarters office for the south-east Asian market. The company has since launched local subsidiaries in Malaysia (2008), Thailand (2013), Indonesia (2013), Vietnam (2013) and the Philippines.

References

{{reflist

External links

igus US website

igus UK website
Manufacturing companies established in 1964 German brands Wire and cable manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in Cologne Bearing manufacturers 1964 establishments in West Germany