Energy guiding chains
Customize energy chains
Igus manufactures its pre-assembled readychain cable carriers largely by hand. Nevertheless, they pay off for users from a quantity of one. By reducing production costs and potential sources of error, the model reduces the burden on machine and plant manufacturers from the start of the product life cycle.
With the Readychain cable carrier chain, Igus is building on its wealth of experience in industrial processes. This is the basis for new concepts for cable carriers that can be integrated into a manufacturing or production line with almost perfect precision. For machine manufacturers, this is reflected in a broadly diversified chain and cable portfolio and an attractive price-performance ratio.
The company has its own premises where more than 90,000 individual components, over 1,300 chain-compatible cables and around 3,500 electrical components are stored. Manual work therefore also means that production of a chain starts immediately after an order is placed. This results in delivery times of just three to five days.
Designing and implementing cable carriers for dynamic applications is anything but trivial. It is not uncommon for small design hurdles or practical obstacles to make it difficult to bring the cable and cable carrier together at the interface. If the installation takes longer or errors occur during commissioning, this can have a negative impact on the overall budget.
Reliable e-chains and highly flexible cables
A Readychain consists of two elementary components, the Chainflex cables and the E-Chain. Energy chains protect the cables against failure and wear. Their field of application ranges from machine tools, woodworking and sheet metal processing machines to applications in clean rooms in the packaging or automotive industry and storage and retrieval machines. Igus has been manufacturing plastic energy chain systems since the 1970s. These are lighter, cheaper, have good sliding properties and are corrosion-resistant. Combined with lower construction costs, they are above all maintenance-free, as they do not need to be lubricated.
Over time, users have requested stable chains for long travel distances, robust designs for harsh environmental conditions or torsion-resistant versions for 3D robot applications. When filling the energy chains, the quality of the cables is particularly important, as they have to withstand ever higher cycle rates, accelerations and speeds. For this reason, Igus has been developing its own cables under the name Chainflex since 1989.
Igus tests its entire range in its in-house test laboratory in motion under real conditions. Every year, over two billion test cycles are completed on more than 50 test systems. With this knowledge, the materials can be precisely matched to each other. Based on the data from the test laboratory, Igus offers a 36-month guarantee on its entire range of cables. Installation is greatly simplified by "speaking" labeling.
Precise work at the interface
The Readychain Rack transport and assembly rack makes installing energy chains even more efficient. This moves the preassembled cable carrier systems to the interface with millimeter precision via traversing units. The use of such a rack pays off with just a few machines. On average, a technician completes the installation of the energy chain within one day with the aid of the rack. Thanks to the telescopic design, the transport and assembly rack can be adjusted to the new chain length in just a few simple steps.
If companies are unable to install an assembled chain on their system themselves for capacity reasons, the trained and experienced assembly experts at Igus are on hand to help. With the "system guarantee", which is confirmed by the DIN EN ISO 9001:2015 quality standard, the company offers a general quality standard for the development and handling of products in a manufacturing company. Another important factor is a reliable quality assurance system that is continuously improved - including in the final acceptance of the Readychain systems.
The combination of manual work and partial automation in chain production, individual customer service and, last but not least, fast response times characterize the Readychain concept. Global bases guarantee consistently high quality, fast availability and standardized parts lists.
Energy chains are used worldwide in the machine tool industry. The low-vibration and chip-resistant chains and flexible cables not only increase safety and reduce costs, but also withstand challenges such as heavy loads or high temperatures. Thanks to the special high-performance plastics, they have a low dead weight. This makes them highly dynamic and saves energy during operation. In contrast to steel versions, the chains are corrosion-free and insensitive to water, chemicals and temperatures. The material of the e-chains is self-lubricating. Protection against chips plays a special role in the machine tool industry. For such applications, Igus has developed e-tubes under the name R2.1, which protect cables from chips.
Heavy-duty ready chains
Crane system operators also use the ready-made cable carrier systems. Igumid is the material of choice for energy chains - a polymer that can withstand high compressive and tensile loads, is stable at extreme temperatures, has good toughness and high abrasion resistance. It is also resistant to weathering and radiation.
The dimensions of the energy chains are configurable and the internal layout can be modified with bars and insertion shelves. The travel paths can reach lengths of up to 800 m, move at 10 m/s and carry a filling weight of up to 90 kg/m.
The heavy-duty energy chains for the crane industry achieve a service life of up to 200,000 km. This corresponds to an average service life of ten to twelve years.
A crane system in Xiamen (southern China) proves its longevity. There, the energy chains are still fully functional even after 15 years in the tropical sun. Igus relies on its own engineering teams for these special projects. They take care of the assembly of the readychains on site so that systems can be put into operation in a short time.
Thomas Müller, Production Manager Readychain Assembly / am
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