igus® has announced the winners of its 2024 vector awards, a biennial competition that honors bold, exciting projects that incorporate igus e-chain® cable carriers made of high-performance plastics. A U.S. company, TDK RF Solutions, took the silver vector award for its automotive test rig.

The winners — selected from 328 applications from 37 countries — were decided by a panel of research, press and industry experts. igus awarded the gold vector to the University of Lisbon's Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, where researchers developed a spectrograph with a moon-sized field of view and ability to simultaneously observe over 1,000 objects in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The spectrograph incorporates igus triflex® series energy chains, ensuring reliable operation even at an altitude of 2,670 meters.

The silver vector was awarded to U.S. company TDK RF Solutions for its vehicle-in-the-loop (VIL) test rig for driver assistance technologies. The rig includes a turntable, surrounded by antennas that expose the vehicle to high electric fields. To guide the control cables and compressed air hoses along the system's five axes, engineers used igus 1400 series energy chains, which they wound into spring cable reels from the igus e-spool® series.

Additional winners include French company MECAoctet, which received the bronze vector for its movable nightclub ceiling with igus e-spool® products, as well as Bear Machines GmbH, which received the green vector for its environmentally-friendly vehicle tire recutting machine, which includes chainflex® cables and E2 e-chain® cable carriers.

All information about the competition and all submissions can be found at www.igus.com/vector.




ABOUT igus:­
igus GmbH develops and produces motion plastics. These self-lubricating, high-performance polymers improve technology and reduce costs wherever things move. In energy supplies, highly flexible cables, plain and linear bearings, and lead screw technology made of tribo-polymers, igus is the worldwide market leader. The family-run company based in Cologne, Germany, is represented in 31 countries and employs 4,600 people across the globe. In 2022, igus generated a turnover of €1.15 billion. Research in the industry's largest test laboratories constantly yields innovations and more user security. Two hundred thirty-four thousand articles are available from stock, and service life can be calculated online. In recent years, the company has expanded by creating internal startups, for example, ball bearings, robot drives, 3D printing, the RBTX platform for Lean Robotics, and intelligent "smart plastics" for Industry 4.0. Among the most significant environmental investments are the "change" program - recycling used e-chains and participating in an enterprise that produces oil from plastic waste.