Manus award winners

igus UK has presented its coveted manus awards to two British engineering companies - Trailerteq and MBP Concepts. The manus competition is a plastic bearing design innovation contest held every two years and winners are selected by an independent panel of academics and industry specialists.

Winning the award for Most Eye Catching Design was MBP Concepts with its Tyligo trailer. Designed and developed in Britain, it uses the iglidur sleeve bearing from igus for the critical function of folding and opening the trailer by sliding the front bracket on the main stainless steel beam. Key requirements were that the bearing should combine high load bearing capacity with long life, small size and minimal maintenance requirements.

The second winner was Trailerteq, who won the manus Plastic Bearing Innovation award. Based in Lancashire, Trailerteq used iglidur polymer bearings in its compact Rapid Deployment Transport trailer.

The igus bearing was used after it was discovered that a phosphorbronze bearing used in the main arm, linking the body of the RDT with the towing vehicles, was prone to premature failure.