25 years of igus Chainflex motion cables

East Providence, Rhode Island – igus revolutionized the design of cable for moving applications 25 years ago with the introduction of Chainflex, and has since been offering ever-increasing numbers of power, control, servo, robot, and data cables. Now, with more than 1,040 cables types available from stock, all extensively tested in the 29,600ft² igus test lab, igus is able to provide reliable cable performance for up to 10 million cycles or 36 months.

 

The use of cables in Energy Chain branded systems requires specialized cable design in order to increase the service life of the cable, and as a result, of the application. In the development of Chainflex cables, igus drew from its experience as a major player in the development and sale of Energy Chains. igus CEO Frank Blase explains “Our advantage at igus is that we are able to develop and test both the cables and Energy Chains that protect them, together as a complete system.”

 

Considerable investments are being made in what may be the industry’s largest test laboratory. Inside the lab, more than 70 cable test rigs perform more than 2 billion test cycles each year. New testing machines enable fast acceleration speeds over 49ft/s² across a 164ft test run. A cryochamber allows temperature tests as low as -40ºF, and new torsion attachments and the expansion of the outdoor installation area allows for additional testing under realistic application settings.

 

Testing data also allows igus to provide a range of online tools that allow customers to quickly determine cable service life in moving applications, as well as find, configure, and order the most suitable cable for their particular application.