Igus, the Germany-based manufacturer of motion plastics, is accepting applications for the coveted manus award, which honors manufacturers that design products that include the company’s maintenance-free plastic bushings and bearing systems.

Levitate Technologies of San Diego, Calif., won top prize in the 2017 competition for its use of Igus’ bearings in the design of The Airframe, a  lightweight exoskeleton engineered to improve upper extremity musculoskeletal health in professionals and skilled trade workers. Igus, which has been conducting the awards since 2003, runs its North American operations out of Providence, R.I.

The winner of the biennial competition earns a prize of up to 5,000 euros. The deadline for submission is February 22, 2019. More information is available at the website below.

The jury’s biggest challenge in the last edition of the manus award was selecting three winners from among the 541 entries from 35 nations. Besides The Airframe, the other award winners were a manipulator arm designed by a French manufacturer and an ejection mechanism for a research object in space, which was developed by a German company.

In addition to the winners, there were many other exciting applications with plain bearings, from 3D printers to art sculptures. "This selection of different applications alone illustrates the versatile application potentials of plastic plain bearings," said Tobias Vogel, vice president and head of iglide plain bearings and drylin linear technology. Vogel succeeds Gerhard Baus as a new member of the jury. Baus was involved in the last eight editions of the competition as the co-founder since its inception in 2003.

Award applicants must present the design with a brief description as well as photos and videos to the jury. The only condition is that there must be at least one prototype of the presented application available. The winners will be selected by an expert jury comprised of members from the fields of science, research, and specialist media. The manus award will be presented at the 2019 Hannover Messe.