igus: Innovative cleaning machine makes coffee kitchens more sustainable

Offices know the problem: dirty coffee cups pile up in the sink. But the employees don’t feel like rinsing and eventually reach for the disposable cup instead.
To avoid this environmental burden, the French company auum has developed a compact cleaning machine. It cleans cups in just a few seconds with 140 °C steam. Lubrication- and maintenance-free bearing technology ensures the smooth, maintenance-free and hygienic functioning of the cleaning mechanism.

2.8 billion – that is the number of disposable cups used in Germany alone every year. Many of them are used at coffee machines in companies, because they are, after all, extremely practical. Coffee and tea drinkers always have a clean cup at their fingertips and no dirty cups pile up in the sink. But auum wants to show that there is another way and that the number of disposable cups can be reduced in the long term. auum stands for “arrètons l’usage unique maintenant” (let’s end single-use immediately) and has developed the auum-S, a space-saving glass dishwasher that works with steam. For the cleaning mechanism, the developers rely on lubrication- and maintenance-free plain bearing technology from igus.

Hygienic and compact

The auum-S is completely designed for sustainability: It consumes very little electricity, hardly any water from the integrated water tank and with dimensions of 50 x 50 x 20 cm, it requires very little space. The machine cleans, disinfects and dries a cup in 10 seconds with only 5 cl of water. The steam comes out at over 140 °C and kills all bacteria without the use of chemicals. Users place the container in the beautifully designed machine and a dome automatically slides over the cup, completely encapsulating the container. The steam cleans and disinfects, while a stream of air dries the glass. Once this step is complete, the dome lifts again and the user can remove his glass. Lubrication-free and maintenance-free linear technology from igus is integrated in the sliding mechanism for this purpose. drylin SLW ensures smooth opening and closing of the dome. “The bearing technology had to meet the requirements for robustness, reliability and minimal maintenance,” says Clément Hullier, Managing Director of auum. “Freedom from lubrication was also a requirement we had, precisely for reasons of hygiene.” In initial tests, the tribopolymer technology from igus proved to be the best solution: it enabled low-friction dry running without external lubricants, and the bearings are wear-resistant and quiet in operation. Convinced by these advantages, the developers finally also relied on plain bearing bushings made of iglidur J in the rotation axis of the glass.

For more information, please visit: https://www.igus.de/