Press

For over two months, the igus Inc. team carried out a mammoth effort of coordinating and executing a car tour from Anchorage Alaska to New York City, traveling through more than half of the 50 United States, and crossing across Canadian boundaries three times, totaling 13,670 miles. Along the way, the car stopped in to visit more than 40 of igus’ current and potential customers, speaking with engineers about the true power of iglide plastic bearings, which are currently celebrating their 30th anniversary.

56 of igus’ plastic bearings were retrofit inside the small car, which is driving around the world over the course of a year to test the power of the bearings in all temperatures, climates, and driving conditions. You can see the entire application report of the car’s retrofit process here (http://www.igus.com/contentData/wpck/pdf/US_en/iglide-on-tour-Application-Report.pdf).

After crossing from the Alaskan wilderness, down the Pacific coast, and across the vast Midwest, the orange “iglide car” reached igus’ new 147,000ft2 Rhode Island facility on October 3, where it helped the company celebrate Manufacturing Day, as well as igus’ 50th anniversary as a company.

Continuing in the celebration, the igus team has donated one dollar for each mile traveled in North America to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (http://www.nationalmssociety.org/), which supports research, driving change through advocacy, facilitating professional education, and providing programs and services that help people with multiple sclerosis and their families.

The car has since traveled across the Atlantic from New York City to Frankfurt Germany, where it has begun the European leg of the tour, which comes to an end in April, at the Hannover Trade Fair. There, the car will be disassembled and the wear of the bearings examined at the event in front of thousands. To learn more about the retrofit process, iglide plastic bearings, or the world tour, please visit the iglide 30 page at www.igus.com/iglide30.

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