Corrosion-free and lightweight plain bearings in amphibious microlight aircraft

Profile

• What was needed: iglidur plain bearings
• Requirements: The bearings must not be susceptible to corrosion and must be permanently clearance-free, as well as maintenance-free and fail-safe.
• Industry: aerospace, aviation industry
• Success for the customer: The iglidur plain bearings used are wear-resistant, highly resilient and incorporated solid lubricants make additional lubricants superfluous. They are also non-corrosive and are therefore the perfect solution for the application.

Problem

This concept of a microlight aircraft made by Lenci Models sas in Italy has been designed for use both in the air and on water. The amphibious propeller aircraft therefore placed particular requirements on all system components. The lightest possible aircraft structure is not only required for take-offs from the water. Care also had to be taken to ensure that all components were permanently protected against corrosion during planning or that they were not susceptible to corrosion in the first place. These considerations also applied to the steering shaft bearing mechanism. A precise and permanently maintenance and failure-free steering solution had to be created for every occasion. Conventional metal bearings were out of the question for reasons of corrosion and weight, so the designers had to look elsewhere.

Solution

For the solution, the designers decided to use polymers as a material to replace metal bearings. Specifically, plain bearings from our iglidur product range are used today in the amphibious microlight aircraft. The polymer plain bearings are suitable for extreme operating conditions of all kinds: iglidur base polymers make them wear-resistant, fibres and fillers ensure maximum resistance to high loads and incorporated solid lubricants make additional lubricants superfluous and the iglidur plain bearings maintenance-free. They have already been tested thousands of times in practice and proven themselves millions of times in applications. Here, too, they prove their worth simply because they are non-corrosive and represent a lightweight alternative to metal bearings.