Person with a prosthesis sitting on a staircase.

Plain bearings for prostheses and orthoses

Lightweight, robust and low-wear

Prostheses and orthopaedic splints are designed to make life easier and provide greater freedom of movement, and the demands placed on them are correspondingly high. The material should be able to withstand the strain, but at the same time not be too heavy so as not to tire the wearer. It should be able to be used anywhere, for swimming in salt or chlorinated water, in sand, in plus and minus temperatures. Even creams and medical products should not restrict its function or stress the material. Plastic bearings from igus are made for precisely such applications and fit perfectly into designs with high requirements.

Advantages of iglidur plain bearings:

No stick-slip effect
Shock-absorbing
Low coefficient of friction
Quiet
Resistant to impact and edge loads
Resistant to media
Insensitive to dirt
Lubrication-free

Products often used with prostheses and orthoses

iglidur W300 plain bearing bushings in two views.

iglidur W300PF plain bearing

For a particularly long service life in continuous operation
Without PTFE
Low coefficient of friction, extremely high abrasion resistance
Suitable for rough shafts and shafts made of stainless steel
Dirt-resistant

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Plastic semi-finished products in various rod and tube forms.

iglidur bar stock

iglidur materials as round rods, tubes and plates
Currently 25 iglidur materials to choose from
Cut to desired size without waste removal
Mechanical processing from quantity 1

To the online shop

Special bearings arranged in an infinity symbol.

Customised component

In desired shape and material from quantity 1
Fast production
Suitable for prototypes, small and large series
Large selection of high-performance materials

Special and drawing parts

Free sample box

Test our energy supply systems and bearings for medical technology to improve equipment performance and lower costs.

You can find more information about the contents of the box on the Medibox info page.

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Musterbox Medizintechnik with igus product samples and components for medical applications.

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Customer application examples

Ottobock knee prostheses 3R60 and 3R78 shown side by side.

Plastic bearings ensure greater safety of knee joint prostheses

Ottobock relies on our lubrication-free iglidur W300 and Q plain bearings and iglidur J guide rings in its knee joint prostheses. They replace previously used metal bearings and PTFE strips, which led to functional problems after a short time and became a safety risk.

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Person with a leg prosthesis making a golf swing beside prosthetic components.

Switching to plastic bearings makes the movement of sports leg prostheses smoother

The "TT Pro" from Blatchford is an adapter for leg prostheses that are used for sporting activities such as golf. Switching from metal bearings to our extremely robust iglidur Z bearings has resulted in less stiffness and therefore greater comfort.

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Overview of fitness and rehabilitation applications with igus articulated arms, prostheses and training equipment.

Further success stories

This selection of application examples is sorted by area of use and shows how our motion plastics products are used in other prostheses/orthoses as well as wheelchairs, fitness and rehabilitation equipment.

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Tested for durability and wear in the igus test laboratory

All products are tested for wear and resilience under real conditions in the igus test laboratory, the largest in the industry. The results are fed into our online tools for calculating service life and allow for precise predictions about durability.

Upon request, igus also carries out customer tests to analyse the use of the products under very individual conditions.

More about the igus test laboratory