A COMPANY tasked with securing major telecommunications infrastructure behind safe barriers has turned to a high-technology polymer solution to ensure its locking mechanisms remain reliable in highly challenging circumstances.
KAG Technical Solutions in Johannesburg provides secure closures and locking mechanisms for batteries and other sensitive telecommunication equipment in the field with keyless entry for service personnel when required. Under these challenging services, the use of advanced polymer bearings now ensures that mechanisms do not get jammed or operate inefficiently even in challenging environments.
According to company owner, Gavin Coetzer, this was regarded as a potential weak point and they had even developed home-grown solutions to try and overcome it.
However, in the end, a simple polymer bearing from global polymer specialists, igus, solved guiding and potential sticking problems immediately.
“This is a heavy-duty application where valuable equipment is secured in vaults and even concrete enclosures. As a result, the sophisticated locking mechanisms need to slide precisely into and out of place and provide absolutely no play for criminals’ leveraging tools. The polymer bearing solution provides us with a clip-in retrofit that ensures an easy-gliding surface for the mechanism, is more wear resistant than steel and needs absolutely no lubrication,” says Coetzer.
igus product specialist, Juan-Eric Davidz, says the company has extensive research and development facilities worldwide and can provide its iglidur polymers for almost any application.
For example, its polymer bearings outperform steel in even the heaviest-duty earthmoving applications and its tribological composition means it needs no lubrication making it ideal for food processing and cleanrooms, for example.
“The application presented at KAG Technical Solutions is an interesting one and requires the ultimate reliability of our product to ensure criminals remain locked out and technical staff have access in and out of the secure area. Our solutions extend to linear guides, cable protection energy chains and other applications that may be used elsewhere for KAG Technical Solutions in future,” Davidz concludes.
