iglidur plain bearings in windscreen wiper kinematics

Steffen Schack | 8. May 2020

A functioning windscreen wiper is an important part of the car and crucial for comfort and road safety. The wiper arm, together with the lever mechanism responsible for its movement, should last for the whole service life of the vehicle and function perfectly.   

For the moving components and bearing points, this means extreme load over several million cycles in many respects: the airstream exerts a force on the kinematics, the weight of snow must be overcome, extreme temperatures and other influences such as road salt, dirt and moisture make the design of windscreen wiper kinematics and the associated bearing points a real challenge for every designer and developer.

The use of plain bearings made of iglidur high-performance polymers from igus supports you in overcoming these hurdles.   

What are the advantages of iglidur plain bearings?

The tribologically optimised polymers from igus offer optimum coefficient of friction paired with high strength. These properties are complemented by excellent temperature and chemical resistance and low moisture absorption.  The additives responsible for the lubrication are firmly integrated in the material and thus form a homogeneously structured plain bearing. There is no PTFE coating that is susceptible to dirt and is sensitive, as known from metallic plain bearings. An unwanted “metal-on-metal” situation or damaging corrosion is avoided by the iglidur polymer solutions from igus.   

We will be happy to advise you on the requirement specifications and the associated test and will work with you to find the right material. This can, for example, be an iglidur material from the iglidur “H family”. Find the technical data and further information here: https://www.igus.eu/info/windshield-whiper-automotive-bearings     

I would like to see for myself! 

Further typical iglidur plain bearing materials for windscreen wiper kinematics can be found in our sample box. You can request these from me free of charge. I also look forward to your requests and to personally give you advice.

Steffen Schack 
Phone: +49(0)2203-9649-9827 
Mobile: +49(0)172-3030956 
E-mail: sschack@igus.net