Sun protection fins on facades by Arcora wins the 2021 bronze manus^® award

Arcora, a French company, is developing a system for moving sun protection fins on facades. The developers use a shape memory alloy for this purpose. The alloy of nickel and titanium is used in the form of cables which, when heated, are capable of generating significant forces to set a translational carriage in motion. This carriage transfers the movement to the rotating sun protection fins via small connecting rods. This way, the system is able to replace the standard motorisations in building facades.
 
At the interfaces between moving and fixed elements, the design engineers are using igus components, including igubal spherical bearings, iglide J polymer fixed flange bearings and drylin N miniature guide rails.