On the occasion of igus’s 60th anniversary, the igus:bike has now been travelling across Germany for 37 days and has visited numerous customers, projects and sights along the way. From the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to the iMSPO shore power system at Hamburg harbour and passenger boarding bridges at Frankfurt airport to Neuschwanstein Castle in the foothills of the Alps. The bicycle made of recycled plastic is intended to sensitise people to the topic of the “circular economy of plastics” and show how robust and durable igus motion plastics are – both in the igus:bike and in various customer applications.
 |
|
As part of the igus:bike world tour, the plastic bicycle has already visited numerous igus customers, projects and sights throughout Germany – from the Brandenburg Gate to passenger boarding bridges at Frankfurt Airport. (Source: igus GmbH) |
The first stages of the world tour have been completed. The bike made from recycled plastic has already travelled 365km across Germany since it started. Both passers-by and igus customers were amazed when they saw the orange, futuristic-looking vehicle for the first time. However, the urban bike is not only intended to impress with its design. It is the first bike suitable for series production that is made from recycled plastic – for example from discarded fishing nets that have been drifting through the oceans worldwide for hundreds of years, contributing to plastic pollution. The project thus shows how plastic waste can become a valuable resource for urban mobility, helping combat the global flood of plastic.
From Germany through other countries
The world tour kicked off on 15th October in the new igus factory building in Cologne. Since then, the igus:bike team has been travelling through Germany to introduce industry partners, consumers and media representatives to a new form of mobility that is fun and also protects the environment. Right at the start of the world tour, for example, the bike stopped at the RheinKrake. This Cologne-based association has installed a floating rubbish trap in the Rhine near the Zoobrücke, which holds back several tonnes of rubbish every year to prevent it from ending up in the Wadden Sea nature reserve. The motion plastics specialist uses some of this waste as raw material for the plastic bicycle. After this visit, the igus:bike team hit the road to reach further exciting destinations: the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, for example, where RHENAC GreenTec AG uses energy chains from igus in its lawn-lighting system to protect the outdoor facility’s energy and data cables from UV radiation, rain and temperature fluctuations. Or the Eurogate Container Terminal at the Port of Hamburg, where the igus Mobile Shore Power Outlet supplies container ships with shore power quickly and flexibly. And of course cycling through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was a must. The bike is now crossing the German border, making its way to the next stage: Singapore. The urban bike makes is stopping in various countries around the world, including Austria, Italy, Spain, the USA and Japan. It will cover 6,000km during the tour and prove how robust the high-performance plastics from igus are.
igus:bike went into series production under the name RCYL
Many engineers will also be able to discover new things on the bicycle’s journey around the world. As a pioneer, igus has done a lot of development work to make the first bicycle made from recycled plastic ready for series production. Material experts have developed a plastic compound that is both robust and lightweight and now allows a recycling rate of over 50% – with an upward trend. In addition, production techniques such as injection moulding and rotary casting have been combined in such a way that, with the exception of individual components like the disc brakes, almost all bicycle components can now be manufactured from plastic: not only the frame, the seat post and the brake levers, but also the drive unit, which was long considered technically unfeasible in the industry. Last but not least, the challenge was to achieve a realistic sales price, which has now been achieved. The bike is available under the name RCYL.
