Chainflex
igus announces the acquisition of elko Verbindungstechnik GmbH. With this step, the company is expanding its assembly capacities in the field of drive technology. At the same time, the motion plastics specialist from Cologne is now even closer to its customers in southern Germany, the centre of the German machine tool and automotive industry.
igus offers customers the opportunity to save costs and protect the environment at the same time when purchasing cables from the chainflex range: thanks to the residual stock in the online shop, they can purchase remaining lengths of chainflex cables at a 50% discount. This zero-waste measure helps avoid waste and makes the company more sustainable.
The reliability of energy and data cables has the potential to increase the economic efficiency of wind turbines. With the TRM triflex Rotation Module (TRM for short), igus is therefore launching a new type of cable guide on the market that reliably protects cables in flexible energy chains made of high-performance plastic when the nacelles rotate by up to 1,800°. The compact system is the result of a design study and can be pre-fitted and customised to individual applications.
The motion plastics specialist igus has released the latest version of its readycable finder, an online tool that makes it much easier to select the suitable drive cable. Users can find the right cable with the appropriate quality at the most favourable price with just one entry. The integrated chainflex service life calculator also reliably predicts how long the cable will last.
As part of the Smart City Initiative with Stuttgart-Marketing GmbH, Funkwerk Systems GmbH has developed a state-of-the-art pedestrian information and guidance system that is changing the way pedestrians explore urban environments. The guide moves every three minutes, drawing attention to events at central points in Stuttgart’s town centre. This pioneering project took second place in the German Tourism Award in 2023. It relies on the three-dimensional triflex R energy chain and highly flexible chainflex cables from igus to ensure smooth and reliable operation.
Like the chemicals of the PFAS family, certain polytetrafluoroethylene compounds – PTFE for short – are considered “forever chemicals” and therefore potentially harmful to the environment, people and animals. The European Union is therefore working on a ban on the substances. With the “PFAS-free” seal, igus demonstrates that their own chainflex cables are free of the chemicals and already offer customers operational safety in the event of a ban.
With the new chainflex cable CF33.UL, igus has developed the world’s first motor cable for energy chains and cable trays with UL approval and a four-year functional guarantee in the energy chain. This allows the cable to be laid seamlessly from the energy chain to the cable tray without a plug connection in between. The CF33.UL also adds a shielded PVC motor cable to the chainflex range.
If cables break, machines and systems come to a standstill. However, companies weren’t able to be sure how long a cable would last. Not until igus solved the problem: 10 years ago, igus was the first industrial company in the world to introduce a 36-month guarantee on moving cables. Just in time for the SPS 2023 automation trade fair, the plastics specialist is extending the guarantee period for its entire cable range by a further 12 months to four years. This gives customers even more functional and planning security. The guarantee, which is unique in the industry, is possible due to thousands of new customer applications and over 20 billion additional test cycles in the in-house chainflex laboratory carried out in the past decade.
Machines have to work reliably around the clock in such areas as material handling. Warehouses are getting bigger, and increasing mast heights mean high demands on the cables. To ensure trouble-free operation even in demanding hanging applications, igus has developed the CFSPECIAL.192 hybrid cable. It is the only cable on the market specifically for hanging applications in e-chains, suitable for SEW-EURODRIVE’s MOVILINK DDI. A high-tensile aramid support element in the cable jacket allows mast heights five times that of standard cables.
Energy and data transmission bundled in one cable: hybrid technology is gaining acceptance among more and more drive manufacturers. In view of this ongoing trend, igus is expanding its chainflex cable portfolio with two new hybrid cables: one is the CF280.UL.H401 with PUR jacket suitable for the modular drive system ctrlX DRIVE from Bosch Rexroth for synchronous servo motors of the MS2N series. The other is the proven hybrid cable for Siemens SINAMICS S210 drives, now with PVC outer jacket.