Cables for repetitive movement and robotics

November 2022 Motion Control & Drives

A leading manufacturer of flexible cables and energy chains that protect moving cables, igus, is extending its product range in South Africa to cater for increasing demand. Igus energy chains are used in a wide variety of applications, especially where cables are required to flex and follow a linear path such as in cranes, heavy equipment and robotics.

MD, Ian Hewat says that the introduction of its specially designed cables has proved to be ground-breaking, with Chainflex cables dramatically outlasting alternatives in the field. As a result, many of the country’s ports and other equipment intensive industries have specified igus cable and energy chain solutions.

Chainflex cables are unharnessed cables for moving applications in energy chains or for robot applications, and come with a fail-safe 36 month guarantee. The cables meet the requirements for EMC safety as well as standards and guidelines such as UL, CSA, EAC, Interbus and Profibus.

The product range includes everything from control cables, servo cables, motor cables and robot cables to bus cables, data cables, encoder cables and fibre optic cables, and are available with a selection of various jacket materials.

“Our cables for energy chains work flawlessly over long periods even with many cycles, high speeds and accelerations as well as very extreme ambient conditions. We can develop solutions for flexible control in robotics and automation through our Chainflex energy chains. These can be developed for cables from 3 mm to massive 300 mm hoses in applications that replace festoons, busbars and cable reel drums,” he concludes.

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