Fundraising campaign: Headbands for Face Shields

Maintaining the fast and reliable supply of tribopolymer products in the current situation is an important goal for igus. "igus is currently delivering without any restrictions," says Managing Director Frank Blase. "On average, small and medium-sized orders are on their way to the customer after 2.5 days." Internationally, local supply is guaranteed thanks to 14 production sites. In order to maintain the ability to deliver, over 100 measures have been implemented at the main site alone, from five new canteens to a hardship allowance for production employees. In addition, igus produces headbands for face shields from recycled iglidur A200 using an injection molding process. This enables low-cost mass production. The first 100,000 headbands are available free of charge, after which they will be sold at cost price. A special production run of 140,000 complete face shields is also currently underway. igus is thus supplying all of Cologne's schoolchildren - a fundraising campaign for their home city.

Over 100 innovations: Digital visits to a real trade fair

As neither trade fairs nor personal visits to customers are currently possible, igus is relying entirely on the advantages of digitalization: The focal point is the trade fair stand that igus has set up as part of its digital support offering to customers. The real stand can be visited virtually, and personal tours, individual and group discussions at the stand can also be arranged directly with the experts from igus. Under the theme "Tech up, cost down. It's our job." igus will be presenting over 100 plastics innovations on 400 square meters. The autoglide 5 energy chain with cable floor guide, for example, shows how customers can save costs and improve their technology. It can save 88 percent assembly time in intralogistics and crane systems, with total costs including cables starting at 49 euros per meter. Another new product is the drylin polymer telescopic rail, which can be used to easily adjust and extend drawers, seat and head adjustments, among other things.

It is also 64 percent lighter than metal guides. Tests in the company's own 3,800 square meter test laboratory are central to product development. This enables igus to offer a unique 36-month guarantee on both the standard e-chain range and chainflex cables. The brand promise "igus 36-month chainflex cable guarantee and service life calculator based on 2 billion test cycles per year" has now been successfully certified by the UL test organization. igus is increasingly focusing on integrating its motion plastics into a circular economy. With initiatives such as "chainge Recycling", "plastics2oil" and ISO 14001 certification. In the "chainge Recycling" program, igus takes back discarded plastic energy chains ("e-chains") regardless of the manufacturer, recycles them and pays a price per kilo in the form of a voucher. The 4.7 million euro investment in Mura Technology goes one step further. The company wants to build plants in which plastic waste is converted into oil in an energy-efficient manner. The ISO 14001:25 environmental certificate was awarded to igus Germany in mid-April and to igus Korea in May. Energy saving targets of at least 10 percent are the next step.

Save costs, improve technology - also at igus

Even though igus is aware that planning is currently difficult, the company remains committed to long-term investments, as Frank Blase emphasizes: "The loss of sales and the costs of overcoming the crisis are severe. A general turnaround for the better is difficult to predict at the moment. However, we have saved a high level of equity for such exceptional times. And we are tackling all costs." Short-time working has been announced in some countries, but not in Germany. "We want to minimize the impact on our employees as much as possible. And we must continue to make crucial investments for the future." These include, for example, the current tunnel construction and the development of the new site for an additional new building at the Cologne site. The high level of investment in digitalization is also continuing. The company launched eight additional service life simulators and online tools in 2019 alone, for example for gears, rollers and shafts, as well as the RBTX platform for low-cost robotics. There are now 38 online tools that can be registered and used free of charge. Frank Blase points out: "Both example projects, new construction and digitalization, have a common focus: customers should be able to access their motion plastics solutions quickly, easily and reliably. Especially now, this is an important goal that we are constantly emphasizing in our daily crisis meetings."