Time and again, design engineers faced the challenge of manufacturing special components as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Traditional manufacturing processes such as turning, milling and injection moulding often reach the limits of economic efficiency. One example: Brinkmann Technology GmbH, which specializes in the manufacture of conveyor technology. The closed conveyor systems are used to transport products such as coffee and sugar for the food industry. A lot of these systems need to be custom-made to meet specific customer requirements. This means that a lot of components, including plastic parts that come into contact with the product, aren't available as catalogue items. The individual production of plastic parts using injection molding is expensive, as separate tools are required for each dimension. This drives up unit costs, especially for smaller systems with short conveyor distances and smaller quantities. Brinkmann therefore decided to invest in 31 3D printers, which produced a total of 5,000 plastic parts for two projects.
Brinkmann Technology is no exception with this strategy. "More and more companies are buying their own 3D printers to quickly produce special components and wear-resistant parts themselves, including a wide range of gears, plain bearings and guides," says Jonas Burk, Head of Additive Manufacturing at the Cologne-based company igus. The advantages are obvious: companies enjoy freedom of design as they are no longer limited by the three- or five-axis machining of CNC machines. They also save time and money as no additional tools such as injection moulds are required for production. However, such projects stand and fall with the choice of print material. "Many conventional plastics are simply not suitable for printing industrial components. They wear out too quickly, especially when the parts move in machines, systems or vehicles," says Burk.
"3D printing in your own company is booming"
To expand the industrial application area of 3D printing, igus is developing its own printing materials that are suitable for industry and tribologically optimised. "Our filaments, powders and synthetic resins are the only printing materials on the market that specifically counteract friction and wear," says Burk. They are therefore used in numerous industries where printed components move and need to be particularly durable to reduce downtimes and make applications maintenance-free. They can be found everywhere, from medical technology to vehicle construction to mechanical engineering. "3D printing in industrial companies is booming. We also notice this in our material sales, which have increased by around 200% in the last two years", explains Burk.
igus now produces printing materials for all common 3D printing processes: fused deposition modelling (FDM), selective laser sintering (SLS), and digital light processing (DLP). The basic formulation of these materials is always similar: base polymers ensure wear resistance, fibres and fillers ensure resistance to high forces and edge loads and microscopic solid lubricants ensure low-friction dry operation without external lubricants. The latter is one of the most important brand characteristics of igus and can be found throughout the entire product range of plain bearings for which the company has been known around the world for over 60 years. These self-lubricating specifications make the printing materials ideal for producing gears or sliding elements in almost all industrial sectors.
According to Jonas Burk, high-performance plastics are almost always one step ahead of standard printing materials: "Compared to standard materials, our SLS materials can last up to 30 times longer, our FDM products up to 50 times longer and the DLP solutions even achieve a service life that is up to 60 times longer." Other ingredients can also be added to the formulation to give the printing materials further specifications, such as resistance to high temperatures or electrical conductivity.
Increased replacement of classic polyoxymethylene
igus tests the wear resistance of the printing materials in its own 5,500m2 test laboratory in Cologne. For example, the so-called pinon-disk tribometer is used to measure friction and wear. The results speak for themselves. One pin, made of POM-H, achieved a wear rate of 77.58µ/km. Test specimens from igus, on the other hand, achieved significantly better values: 1.08µ/km for iglidur i190 (FDM), 2.05µ/km for iglidur i4000 (DLP) and 1.19µ/ km for iglidur i230 (SLS). It is also worth noting that the wear on the POM samples increases with higher speed. This is not the case with the self-lubricating iglidur materials. Friction and wear remain at a constantly low level. According to Burk, it is therefore understandable that many users are replacing the established material polyoxymethylene (POM) in moving applications, such as gears, bearings, guides and drive nuts. Admittedly, POM, a highly crystalline plastic with good mechanical strength and dimensional stability, has been a standard for wear-resistant and mechanically resilient components or decades. However, the material tends to wear comparatively quickly when in motion with friction. This is also proven by tests in which plastic gears rotate on a steel mating gear. A gear that had been printed with the SLS material iglidur i230 withstood the test for 166 hours. A gear that had been machined via CNC from POM-C lasted for only 20 hours, and an SLS-printed specimen made from PA12 for just under 2 hours. "It is also important to us that users achieve professional results immediately with the print materials without having to spend hours experimenting with printer settings beforehand," concludes Burk. "That's why you can download material profiles from our website. With their help, you can automatically adjust parameters such as temperature and flow rate." Interested parties who do not wish to invest directly in their own 3D printers can use the 3D printing service from igus. It allows the production of customised, complex components in just three days, from one piece to series of 70,000 parts.
Hannover Messe 2026 Exhibitor: Hall 13, C60
