Your IGUS experince ?

[civilseal]

I would like to know your experience with IGUS bearings?
Especially DryLin open pillowblocks with supported aluminium rails.

Im thinking on using them in my next design.

But please share your thoughts on their other bearings to

Ive seen here on the forum that the T-rails arent pretty good, wonder if its the same with all the bearing ?

[svenakela]

It depends, what's the size and intended use?
They're perfect for linear motion in automatic processes (such as self mounting jigs, transporter system etc) but they bind easily and doesn't work with preload.
Igus has been discussed before, try to search the forum.
http://www.google.com/custom?domains...ch=cnczone.com

Regards,
Sven

[schbrownie]

I built a machine using shafting and pillowblocks for the X-Axis. The table was about 4'x8'. I talked with the customer service guys from igus and they were quite friendly and I ordered the pillowblocks, but I couldn't get them to work. I called pacific bearing and their customer service guy suggested I try their pillowblock. I was skeptical because they are basically the same thing. Once I got them and installed them the bearings from pacific worked!

On the outside, both pillowblocks looked the same (in terms of size and shape anyways). The color between the two is different, but that doesn't effect performance. On the inside, the igus bearing had a plastic bearing surface that I could pop out and play with. The pacific bearing has teflon that's glued down and won't come out. My guess is that because pacific has the glued in version, they can hold a better tolerance than the igus plastic piece that snaps into place. That better tolerance probably allowed my application to work when the igus bearing wouldn't.

By the way, when I talked to the igus sales rep on the phone, they told me that the ridges and grooves in their bearing allowed for dirt to pass through and any dirt on the rail would cause the pacific bearing to fail. I have found this to be completely FALSE. The pacific bearing just pushes the dirt out of the way of the bearing and leaves a little pile of crud at the end of the stroke. They also told me that the pacific bearing teflon is only a thin layer and the whole bearing needs to be replaced often... For the record, I have never had to replace a pacific bearing and I don't know anyone that has.

Good luck with your application,

~Jon

[civilseal]

Thank you for your help!

Didnt Igus give some reason it didnt work?

[schbrownie]

No explination was given... there were some guesses... I talked to a two or three guys in order to try and figure out why... their best guess is that I didn't have it aligned properly and when we installed the pacific bearings we somehow (luckily/magically) got it aligned perfectly and that's what allowed it to work.

[budP]

First they lie then they deny then they blame it on the customer.
That has been my experience with them.

budP

[cheetahcnc]

I have built many machines for a kitchen cabinetry manufacturer. I only use the pacific lined, or frelon gold type bearings on ground stainless shafts. Many OEM's use the recirculating ball t or round rail type, which I replace with Frelon's if possible when they fail. One of the 6 axis, simultaneous dual three axis servo system, failed within months with the t rail type. I questioned the manufacturer on installation about grease. He responded any type will do, but this was not the case. I replaced five or six bearings before switching to 00 synthetic grease. This stuff is like half cooked pudding, and will constantly leak from the greasegun, but the bearings have lasted for a few years with no more trouble. The Frelon type bearings have run for years on my custom built machinery without grease. I usually direct pnumatic valve exhaust on the rails, as the air system has a filter/lubricator.

[schbrownie]

Don't get us wrong, we're not saying that Igus does not make good products. The igus products work well, for certain applications. The problem people run into is that these bearings can not be used for every application. The igus bearings work well for low load, low duty cycle, low accuracy applications. If you need a bearing that will last longer, have a higher duty cycle and be more accurate, then you need to step up to the "Simplicity Bearings" from Pacific. (Same thing goes when you're looking at the T-rails from Igus and the mini-rail from Pacific)

That being said, both of the above mentioned products are plain bearings and plain bearings are not as accurate as ball based bearings. Why? Because the ball based bearings can be preloaded to eliminate all clearance between the bearing and the rail. When you preload a plain bearing, it changes from a bearing to a brake.

Here's a comparison of the igus vs pacific round shaft bearings. Using the info in Pacific's catalog (page 52) as a guide, we'll compare an application of two parallel shaft with 2 3/4" open bearings on each shaft with a total load of 53lbs. Pacific provides a wear chart for their bearings. The Pacific wear chart goes out to 105,840,000 inches (approx 1670 miles), at which point wear of 0.00042" was recorded. I entered equivalent info into Igus's expert system and and at 1670 miles, the Igus bearings will wear 0.014" (30x more)

Looking at the information published on Igus's website, the maximum wear is 0.030". Talking to an application engineer at Pacific, their maximum wear is 0.007". The igus bearing will wear out after 3100-3200 miles. Assuming a linear trend, the Pacific bearing will wear out after 27,833 miles (1).

You can make your own assumptions which bearing would work better for your application.


**** Supporting facts *********************
(1) Assuming linear trend where 0.000" wear at 0 miles and 0.00042" at 1670 miles, 0.007" of wear would occur at approx 27,833 miles (wear distance = 1670*0.0070/0.00042)
* Pacific info taken from their catalog page 52
* igus info taken from their expert system (http://www.igus.de/Main_fs.asp?LANGU...DRYLIN_EXPERTE). The following information was entered into igus's expert system:
1. Drylin R, inches, open, standard
2. JUIO-01-12
3. hardanodized aluminum
4. English
5. imperial
6. horizontal
7. single with fixed and floating bearing
8. 2
9. 2 parallel
10. 53
11. 0,0,0
12. 0,0
13. 5
14. 4.5
15. [different values]
unsupported length = 0
* values for calculation of ball bearing
fh = 1.0
fr = 1.0
P = 58.9N (53lbs/4)
fc = 0.81
fw = 2.0
C =


************
disclaimer: I do not work for igus and I have not been trained in their expert system. I simply followed the limited instructions that are available. If I have used their system wrong, please post a reply and I'll alter my post.

[harryn]

There is some useful design and real world experience with Frelon bearings in this thread.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40230

In summary, be very careful of load placement vs bearing spacing.

[Molisan Tono]

is it drylin-T??? pacific bearing doesn't come with adjustable, so let say your pillowblock wear out you need to replace the whole thing. while using igus you could simply order the replace part... the only think that you igus product don;t work well it because you don't get enough clearance to run smooth on rail. there are 3 adjustable pin to adjust y and z axis.

it been 3 years now to answer your question about igus... sorry

Originally Posted by schbrownie I built a machine using shafting and pillowblocks for the X-Axis. The table was about 4'x8'. I talked with the customer service guys from igus and they were quite friendly and I ordered the pillowblocks, but I couldn't get them to work. I called pacific bearing and their customer service guy suggested I try their pillowblock. I was skeptical because they are basically the same thing. Once I got them and installed them the bearings from pacific worked! On the outside, both pillowblocks looked the same (in terms of size and shape anyways). The color between the two is different, but that doesn't effect performance. On the inside, the igus bearing had a plastic bearing surface that I could pop out and play with. The pacific bearing has teflon that's glued down and won't come out. My guess is that because pacific has the glued in version, they can hold a better tolerance than the igus plastic piece that snaps into place. That better tolerance probably allowed my application to work when the igus bearing wouldn't. By the way, when I talked to the igus sales rep on the phone, they told me that the ridges and grooves in their bearing allowed for dirt to pass through and any dirt on the rail would cause the pacific bearing to fail. I have found this to be completely FALSE. The pacific bearing just pushes the dirt out of the way of the bearing and leaves a little pile of crud at the end of the stroke. They also told me that the pacific bearing teflon is only a thin layer and the whole bearing needs to be replaced often... For the record, I have never had to replace a pacific bearing and I don't know anyone that has. Good luck with your application, ~Jon