New dry cleaning room certificates for igus e-chains

High purity is essential in semiconductor and battery production. As these technologies have to deliver more and more performance while being as small as possible, they are becoming more sensitive. This also increases the demands on the production environments, which are achieved by combining dry and clean rooms, but not all machine components can withstand these demanding environmental conditions. "In the dry clean room, many systems have a short service life and have to be replaced after two to three months," explains Kira Weller, Product Manager e-chains at Igus. "Particle emissions in particular can increase significantly due to the dry conditions, as the materials are often not designed for dry conditions and become brittle." For this reason, Igus has tested its portfolio of cleanroom-compatible energy chains such as the e-skin soft, e-skin flat and E6 in this dry environment. "Together with the Fraunhofer IPA, we have now developed two new certificates that verify the durability and purity of these e-chains in a dry environment with a relative humidity of less than one percent," says Kira Weller.

High purity over 10 months and 15 million double strokes

The two new certificates are divided into "Pre-aging" and "Aging behavior". For the "Aging behavior" certificate, two of the cable carrier systems, E6.J and the e-skin flat system, were tested in the drying room over a period of 10 months. They completed over 15 million double strokes. The systems were tested and certified for their ISO class every two months. The e-skin flat survived the double strokes without any problems and received the best possible certification of ISO class 4. A higher certification is not possible as the test environment (ISO class 3 dry cleaning room with a relative humidity of less than one percent, corresponding to a dew point of -40 °C) does not allow this. The E6.J was also able to maintain this result for 4 months, but ultimately achieved ISO Class 5, which is a very good result for battery production.

The "Pre-aging" certificate, which was commissioned for the e-skin soft and easy chain E14 energy supply systems, certifies the systems after 15 million double strokes and 10 months in the drying room. Here too, the Igus e-chains received the best possible ISO Class 4 certification. Thanks to these long-term studies and certifications from Fraunhofer IPA, Igus was able to confirm that the energy supply systems have very low particle emissions and are therefore safe for automation in the dry cleaning room.