Maintenance-free for 15 years

Profile

• What was needed: chainflex® cable CF5 (unshielded control cable), energy chain type 2500
• Requirements: high cycle rates, adverse environmental conditions, use around the clock, 7 days a week
• Industry: conveyor technology, filling, transport and palletising systems
• Success for the customer: the energy supply has been in use for 15 years without a single cable failure and has completed 73 million double strokes in the process

In the early years, GePaTec mbH (Gesellschaft für Prozessautomations-Technik mbH) in Kummerfeld near Hamburg set itself the task of meeting the steadily increasing demand for individual service, conversion and optimisation measures. However, as the tasks have continued to develop and expand to this day, there is hardly an area of automation and electrical engineering that the company does not deal with. Today, the GePaTec team primarily deals with the creation of S5/S7 programmes or circuit diagrams, whereby both small control boxes and highly complex switchgear are planned and manufactured in-house.
Various partnerships extend the range of services. The exclusive co-operation with Axler und Markmann GmbH (SAM) focuses on planning and design. Complete filling or palletising systems, including control systems, are created under the leadership of SAM, for which the experts at GePaTec take care of both commissioning and maintenance. The international client has a customer base that is mainly based in Europe.
Particularly noteworthy is the case of a system in Finland, which has been palletising plastic granulate filled into bags there for a good 15 years. Every hour, 1,500 sacks are stacked on top of each other - five pieces in one layer, with eleven layers making up one pallet. The energy supply system has to perform two double strokes per layer. At temperatures of +5 to +20 °C, the machine is also in operation around the clock, seven days a week.
The most important concern for the customer is reliable technology - especially in the area of energy supply. In conveyor technology, system availability is crucial to the company's success. In the event of an unplanned shutdown, it takes a while for a maintenance technician to arrive on site - especially if the customer is based abroad.

In the area of energy supply, GePaTec relied entirely on products from igus® right from the start. Specifically, an energy chain of type 2500 and the control cable CF5.15.12 (12x1.5 mm², unshielded control cable) from the chainflex® programme from igus® can be found in the Finnish palletising system today.
Prior to this, the energy chain and cable underwent numerous practical test series in igus' in-house laboratory® under the most difficult operating conditions. The comprehensive test results collected during such tests can then be summarised in databases, creating a comprehensive and up-to-date data pool. The decisive advantage of this data basis is that the product behaviour in the subsequent plant can be better planned. Precise and reliable information about the actual service life can be provided. Many new products have also already been developed based on the test results. For the customer, this ultimately means that they receive a reliable functional guarantee from igus®.
In the case of the Finnish system, the control cable used is calculated to withstand more than 41 million strokes. The specific example of the palletising machine shows that these calculations are still very conservative. The jacket damage only occurred after 15 years of continuous use and a total of 73 million double strokes - much to the delight of the customer and igus®. GePaTec CEO Heino Axler adds to this record-breaking performance: "If you follow the installation instructions, the 'rules of the game' for interior separation and separator, so to speak, the energy supply systems don't cause any problems. After all, we are the first and only point of contact for the end customer, and cable failures fall directly back on us."

Continuous further development ensures the quality standard
In addition to the control cables installed by GePaTec, the chainflex® range also includes servo and measuring system cables, to name just a few variants. A wide range of bus systems is also included. In the Ethernet sector alone, 30 different solutions are available to customers in their individual quality from stock. A total of 1,244 cable types are available from stock, which also include a functional guarantee - tested for cold, chemicals, complex movements in robots or demanding chain applications with very small radii. Regardless of which cable is chosen, every customer benefits from more than 25 years of experience with special cables. Product Manager Muckes also mentions the keyword 'guarantee': "igus® is the only company to promise that the cables will last 36 months and up to 10 million double strokes and reliably transfer energy and data between machines." Secure data transfer via Ethernet in dynamic applications, for example, is a key prerequisite for successful machine-to-machine communication in the factory.