Silver manus® 2021 - felling wedge

The last few dry years have made it increasingly dangerous to fell trees with a hammer and wedge. Dead branches drop at the slightest vibration. The company Forstreich from Freiburg has therefore developed a radio-controlled, battery-operated felling wedge.

double rails and pillow blocks of the type drylin W.

Description of application

Industry: forestry
Customer requirement: long service life despite dirt and high radial forces
Solution from igus: drylin W linear guide, iglidur G plain bearing

Forstreich GmbH receives the silver manus for using iglidur plain bearings and drylin linear guides in a felling wedge.

To the linear technology online shop

Extremely adverse conditions for the linear guide

The linear guide and bearings can withstand extreme environmental conditions. "Soil, sand, sawdust, moisture and resin were not allowed to cause the bearing to fail or seize in our application.

With the igus polymer products, we found exactly what we were looking for. Metal bearings with lubricant would have blocked the bearing in combination with dirt," continues Stefan Reichenbach. "We completely dispense with lubricants in our bearings, which makes our solutions lightweight, robust and maintenance-free. The same applies to our rails made of hardened and anodised aluminium," explains Philipp Köbele, Technical Sales Consultant at igus GmbH.

Another important point is that the absence of external lubricants means that no oil gets into the forest floor. The bearings are cost-effective and yet can absorb and transmit high radial forces and torques in addition to offering a very long service life.