Maintenance-free bearings and linear guides in a rescue helicopter

A novel external load system or cargo hook design for helicopters needed four important factors to be successful: low weight, high reliability, extreme weather resistance and freedom from maintenance. This combination makes helicopter rescue operations such as flood evacuations possible.

Since the application was implemented with igus® maintenance-free bearings and linear guides, the helicopter cargo hook system can now be serviced from one location and has a service life of 100,000 loading cycles. With igus®products, the weight of the entire system was reduced to less than 52 pounds.