Best quality for the steel

The test head measures geometry, topology, outer contours, volume and binding defects, among other things. © GMH Testing Technology

Since 1993, the Nuremberg-based company GMH Prüftechnik has been active in manual, semi-automatic and automatic non-destructive material testing, serving various industries worldwide. The portfolio primarily includes ultrasonic and eddy current testing. "These types of testing can be automated very well," says Managing Director Peter Archinger. For example, GMH supplies railroad companies worldwide; among other things, the shafts, wheels, axles and bogies of locomotives and trains are inspected for defects using testing systems from GMH Prüftechnik. "Basically, we serve everything below the platform edge," says Archinger. In addition to the railroad industry, GMH is also very active in the steel industry - the company is part of Georgsmarienhütte, a leading supplier of raw, bar and bright steel based in the town of the same name in Lower Saxony. GMH supplies the steel industry with huge sheet metal testing systems up to 50 m long, 8 m wide and 4 m high. The systems test the sheets for non-metallic inclusions and bonding defects. The company recently completed a major project with an Austrian steel and technology group. The system checks the quality of large sheets. To ensure that the system can carry out its work without any problems, GMH has installed energy chains from Cologne-based specialist Igus for moving cable routing.

GMH Prüftechnik uses ready-made readychain systems from Igus for the movement in the test systems. © GMH Testing Technology

When it came to designing the cable routing, the decision was quickly made in favor of the already familiar Readychain energy chains from Igus. One factor in particular convinced GMH: "We were very pleased that Igus supplied the energy chain as a ready-made assembly," recalls the managing director. The complete package benefited the medium-sized company because the finished assembly meant that only a small amount of work needed to be put into the installation. "With a system as large as this one, we simply don't have the time or capacity to take care of every single part of an energy chain," says Archinger. GMH Prüftechnik employs 20 people, the majority of whom were already involved in the project. The company takes a holistic approach to the implementation of its projects, from design to electrical planning and wiring through to software.

Energy chain with enormous dimensions

The H4.56 energy chain used was a first for both GMH and Igus. The chain has a travel distance of 46 m, an internal height of 56 mm and a width of 462 mm. "In this dimension, it was the largest energy chain that I have ever had the pleasure of laying out," says Werner Pecher, technical sales consultant at Igus, who supervised the project with GMH. The 10-tonne system has travel speeds of up to 1 meter per second, and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) was also an important concern for GMH and the customer. The H4.56 half-pitch energy chain can be filled both in the inner radius and in the outer radius. In the readychain version, users have very little work to do after delivery. The chain arrives at the customer ready fitted with cables and can be installed straight away. "Igus was able to supply everything from a single source," recalls design engineer Rolf Kopp.

For the project, GMH had to rely on very different cables, with compressed air and water lines in the readychain. Igus used products from its broad Chainflex portfolio for the electrical cables. The cables are specially developed for use in moving applications and have been tested in millions of test cycles in the test laboratory at the Igus headquarters in Cologne. In total, Igus offers over 1,350 cable types ex works for data, bus and hybrid systems, control and drive. The manufacturer works together with a certified partner company for the compressed air and hydraulic cables.

Fast installation by trained personnel

The fact that the project was completed satisfactorily for all parties is also due to the continuous exchange between the companies. Igus employee Werner Pecher has known the company for many years and has always been available to GMH. "This kind of support is really not a matter of course," explains Eduard Deister, electrical engineer at GMH. Igus also helped with the design. The company offers its customers the option of downloading the 3D CAD files of the energy chains in question online free of charge and integrating them into their own software. This not only facilitates planning, but ultimately also implementation. Igus itself was on site in Austria with its trained installation team to install the energy chain. "We made sure that we sent experienced personnel to the customer," recalls Werner Pecher. The installation on site went smoothly and GMH was impressed by the collaboration. "The chain is low-maintenance, ready-made, robust and therefore exactly what we were looking for," says design engineer Kopp.

The GMH testing system now inspects large sheets at the customer's plant, which are later used in pipeline or shipbuilding. So far, experience with the new system has been positive, which is partly due to the Readychain, which performs its work without any problems. After many strenuous years in the project, Peter Archinger, Eduard Deister, Rolf Kopp and Werner Pecher are now looking forward to what the future holds for the collaboration between Igus and GMH Prüftechnik.

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Igus, http://www.igus.de