Turn, tilt, fold, slide - maintenance-free and convenient

WSS Wilh. Schlechtendahl & Söhne GmbH & Co. KG is known among architects and planners of public and commercial buildings for developing and manufacturing high-quality fittings for windows, doors and façade elements. Maintenance-free sliding and bearing elements from the igus®® construction kit are used, which are subject to high stresses - due to high surface pressures, different environmental influences and the requirement to achieve up to one million operations.

The "key region" of Heiligenhaus is home to a unique concentration of lock and hardware technology companies - and even has its own university campus specialising in mechatronics. Some of the manufacturers in the region supply the global automotive industry with vehicle locks, while others are active in building technology. These include WSS Wilh. Schlechtendahl & Söhne GmbH & Co. KG.

In the premium segment of quality and innovation
The company, which was founded in 1906 and employs around 350 people in Heiligenhaus, initially specialised in building hardware for windows, doors and gates and has been active as a supplier of façade technology for around 20 years - and, with all the products in its wide range, is clearly in the premium segment in terms of quality and innovation.

Dipl.-Betriebswirt Robin Fasel, CEO of WSS: "We develop and supply components that can be used to open elements of the building envelope." Many well-known and architecturally sophisticated buildings are equipped with hardware systems from WSS - for example the headquarters of Daimler and Sony in Berlin, the GAP 15 office building in Düsseldorf as well as the striking "Colorium" in the media harbour there and the Telekom office tower in Bonn.

For these and many other buildings, WSS has developed customised fittings for lowering, folding, rotating, displaying and moving façade elements. The company's catalogue range is no less sophisticated and includes a wide variety of window fittings as well as panic locks with electronic handle control and roller hinges for heavy fire protection and escape doors.

High demands on plain bearings
This can be illustrated using the example of a bearing attached to the rotating joint of a door or window fitting. Giovanni Zaccaria: "The entire weight of up to 250 kilograms rests on the flange of the lower bearing - on just a few square millimetres. Tilt loads also occur when the window is open." Nevertheless, the bearing must move easily and smoothly. Above all, it must not wear out: customers and users expect hardware to operate maintenance-free for decades - even though they are moving components.

Bearings from the igus®® modular design system prove themselves under these conditions. Depending on the application, the designers at WSS use bearings made from iglidur® J or iglidur® G. Both materials are high-performance polymers with a lubricant component that is firmly incorporated into the material and therefore guarantees permanently good sliding properties - without additional lubrication.