2023 green manus® - trailer coupling

Application Overview

Industry: Agricultural engineering
Customer requirements: corrosion-free bearing points, no external lubricants, functionality in dirt and weather
igus solution: individually manufactured wear insert made of iglide® material

Rockinger Agriculture GmbH receives the green manus for a wear insert made of iglide® high-performance plastic.

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The results have convinced us. The wear inserts lasted a whole season and there was no sign of wear on the coupling.

Toni Milhahn

Product Manager and Sales Engineer at ROCKINGER Agriculture GmbH

Problem

Trailer couplings actually need to be lubricated every time they are used, which is very costly and time-consuming. "I know farms where someone has to service and lubricate every single bearing point on all machines once a week," reports Toni Milhahn, who works in product management and as a sales engineer at ROCKINGER Agriculture GmbH. It is also important to ensure that the correct amount of grease is applied to the coupling. "Too much can lead to some of the lubricant getting into the soil or onto the crop. Too little leads to coupling damage," explains Marcus Reinländer, Cable Plant Production at Agrargenossenschaft e. G. Kirchheilingen.

Application Solution

No more lubricating: For balers, loader wagons, manure spreaders, tippers, and field sprayers, Rockinger Agriculture GmbH is developing a ball coupling called the KS80 using an iglide® series high-performance plastic that igus® developed specifically for the company. The coupling consists of a coupling ball and claw installed in the height adjustment system.

As usual, the coupling claw is positioned on the ball head from above. It is secured against inadvertent decoupling with a hold-down device and creates a clearance-free connection. What is special about this coupling becomes apparent only upon inspection of the inside of the coupling claw. It contains a wear insert made of high-performance plastic whose wear resistance has been proven in laboratory tests.

In a fatigue test, the inserts survived two million load changes – with a support load of 4.5 tons. Rockinger Agriculture GmbH calculates that if a third of the tractors in Germany were equipped with a KS80 and wear insert, around 8,300 couplings would require no external lubrication. Eight tons of grease could be saved each year.

Contact Us

Questions or product information? Please contact:

Nate Guadagni

igubal Product Manager

1 401 438-2200 Email

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