Every two years, igus GmbH presents the vector award for novel applications with energy chain systems covering fast travels, adverse environmental conditions and dizzying rotations.

The 2016 gold vector award went to Robotic Drilling Systems, a Norwegian company, who use several energy chain systems from the motion plastics specialist igus in extremely limited spaces within their robots.

The ‘Drill-floor Robot DFR-1500’ from the Robotic Drilling Systems is the central robot in a fully automated oil drilling system. In an area where normal work involves the manual carriage of individual drilling elements to and fro and fixing with bolts with enormous effort, the company is working on the oil platform of the future, where the drilling is completely prepared and executed by robots. The DFR-1500 uses individual drilling elements and brings them into the correct position for the drilling operation. RBR systems from igus are used in the articulated joints of the robots, and are responsible for the supply of energy, data and media. RBR stands for “reverse bend radius”, because the chains are used lying on their side and the chain links can move in both directions, allowing rotational movements. This sophisticated energy supply system solution convinced the jury of the 2016 vector award, consisting of representatives of specialised media, business and research, who honoured the application by Robotic Drilling Systems with the gold vector award. The award, also with Euro 5,000 prize money, was received by Jimmy Bostrom, Chief Operating Officer at Robotic Drilling Systems, in front of around 500 guests at the award ceremony in the fair stand of igus GmbH at the Hannover Messe.

Silver

The silver vector went to Italy this year, selected from among the 190 submissions from 26 countries competing for the 2016 vector awards. In machine tools manufactured by Fidia, a completely pre-harnessed and pre-assembled MRM (multi rotation module) from igus is installed, which implements rotational movements of up to 720 degrees. As a result, fast rotation speeds of 180°/s and acceleration of 30°/s² and extremely fast changes of direction are possible. The module is simply installed on top of the machine tool and connected, allowing a very fast rotation of the z-axis.

Bronze

The application by Ebawe Anlagentechnik GmbH of Eilenburg in Saxony, which the company designed and constructed for a project in Thailand, was awarded the 2016 bronze vector. The plant is used for the industrial production of very varied concrete elements. The concrete distributor must go to the cleaning spot once or twice a day so that a smooth operation can be ensured. This, however, is about 50 metres away from the actual workplace of the plant. The solution was a chain from igus moving within a trough in the main workplace. A second system composed of e-chain and trough is used for the long spur track route to the cleaning place. The chain for the shorter moving trough is locked and the chain including trough moves on rollers above the lower system until its chain is fully extended. This entire process takes place fully automatically.

Special award

Catamaran boats always need two berths next to each other in the port due to their large width – this is expensive and sometimes not even available in high season. Cranage in particular is also extremely cumbersome, since there are few facilities available with a minimum width of eight metres. To resolve these problems, the Futura Yachtsystems Entwicklungs GmbH & Co KG developed the first width-variable water catamaran, which was awarded the 2016 special vector. The application enables the hulls to extend and retract, thus reducing the width from 8 metres to just 4.85 metres. In addition to the drylin linear units, seawater-resistant energy chains from igus are used, which guide the cables and hoses safely.

Harish Booshan, Product Manager, E-ChainSystems & ReadyChains, igus (India) Private Limited, Bangalore. Tel: 080-49127809. Email: Harish@igus.in