Tie rod ends, especially in trucks and vans, are exposed to extreme loads during operation and require the highest quality materials and construction to ensure durability. Wulf Gaertner Autoparts, which produces the MEYLE and MEYLE HD brands have been working igus, a leading German specialist in plastic materials on the development iglidur plain bearings to give MEYLE suspension parts added strength.

Fitted with polymer plain bearings engineered by igus, a special car has been travelling through 20 countries across four continents in 12 months thereby testifying to the iglidur plain bearings enormous potential and supreme load-carrying capacity. The igus team recently stopped over at Wulf Gaertner Autoparts AG's Hamburg head-offices.

"We were excited to welcome the 'iglidur on tour' team and learn about their experiences first-hand", says Andreas Pfeffer, Head of Business Development and Electrics and Sensors at Wulf Gaertner Autoparts. "This project demonstrates yet again the superb load-carrying capability and growing significance of plastic materials in automotive technology. This is why we rely on igus polymer plain bearings for our products", Pfeffer continues.

Owing to its robustness and excellent temperature resistance, Wulf Gaertner Autoparts' engineers use this material on HD tie rod ends for truck applications where particularly high levels of stress resulting from high vehicle weights, long service lives and frequently poor road conditions require HD solutions. To minimise wear, Wulf Gaertner Autoparts has increased the joint's ball pin diameter from 40 to 45 mm. The larger contact area between ball and plastic socket improves the part's load-carrying capacity by 25 per cent. The tribological characteristics of all materials, including a specially formulated grease made by lubricant expert Fuchs Lubritech, are perfectly geared to each other to reduce wear to a minimum. The ball pin's finely polished surface offers an exceptionally low friction coefficient. Marketed under the MEYLE-HD brand name these parts have been technically refined to offer improved stability and durability compared to their OE counterparts.