At Elecrama 2016, igus, the motion plastics specialist, presented the world's first Ethernet bus cables specially made for three-dimensional movement. The cables comply with the CAT6A or CAT7 standard. In this way igus guarantees fast and secure data transfer during operation, even under extreme conditions of mechanical stress, for example where industrial robots are supplied with data. The new cables from igus are a further addition to the already extensive range of Ethernet cables for continuous movement in energy chains.

Today, there are approximately three million industrial robots, which work with increasingly high quantities of data and are an integral part of modern production facilities. Durable cables made of special materials and featuring advanced technical characteristics ensure fail-safe data transfer and are essential in manufacturing if cost-intensive production outages are to be avoided. igus, the motion plastics specialist, has been developing special cables for motion for 25 years and has now expanded its portfolio with the world's first cables for three-dimensional motion in very complex applications. Complying with the CAT6A or CAT7 standard, the new chainflex CFROBOT8.050 (CAT6A) and chainflex CFROBOT8.052 (CAT7) cables ensure fast data transfer according to the latest industrial standards. “In contrast to cables for linear motion in energy chains, the mechanical stress for robot cables consists of a combination of bending, torsional and compressing forces,” explains Rainer Rössel, Head of Business Unit chainflex cables at igus. “It is therefore all the more difficult to determine the requirements for the cables’ structural design in advance. This is why we test all cables not only in isolated torsion tests but also application-specific sequences of movement with the cables connected to industrial robots.” The result of continuous work done in research and development in recent years is that the range of chainflex Ethernet cables that are supplied by igus and which have been specially designed, manufactured and tested for continuous motion, has now increased to 27 different types of different quality categories and price classes.

All the components of the robot cables such as stranded core structures, shields and sheath materials are subjected to varying levels of stress when torsional movements occur. In order to make sure that the chainflex cables remain stable and that data security is ensured, igus employs a combination of films that slide very easily yet are extremely stable, together with especially 'soft' fillings that systematically absorb the forces that occur. The specifications such as dampening, cable capacitance and signal quality must constantly remain the same within narrow tolerances over the entire service life of the cable. Torsionally optimised insulating materials and mechanical damping elements with matching capacitance values guarantee this durability.