igus has announced the winners of its 2024 vector awards, a biennial competition that honors bold, exciting projects that incorporate igus e-chain cable carriers made of high-performance plastics. A U.S. company, TDK RF Solutions, took the silver vector award for its automotive test rig.

The winners — selected from 328 applications from 37 countries — were decided by a panel of research, press and industry experts. igus awarded the gold vector to the University of Lisbon’s Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, where researchers developed a spectrograph with a moon-sized field of view and ability to simultaneously observe over 1,000 objects in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The spectrograph incorporates igus triflex series energy chains, ensuring reliable operation even at an altitude of 2,670 meters.

The silver vector was awarded to U.S. company TDK RF Solutions for its vehicle-in-the-loop (VIL) test rig for driver assistance technologies. The rig includes a turntable, surrounded by antennas that expose the vehicle to high electric fields. To guide the control cables and compressed air hoses along the system's five axes, engineers used igus 1400 series energy chains, which they wound into spring cable reels from the igus e-spool series.

Additional winners include French company MECAoctet, which received the bronze vector for its movable nightclub ceiling with igus e-spool products, as well as Bear Machines GmbH, which received the green vector for its environmentally-friendly vehicle tire recutting machine, which includes chainflex cables and E2 e-chain cable carriers.

All information about the competition and all submissions can be found at igus.com/vector.