Safe and reliable in any weather

The challenge

The Ecological-Botanical Garden at the University of Bayreuth has unique installations that are used by scientists for experiments and long-term studies. On 16 hectares of outdoor area and 6,000 square metres of greenhouse space, the garden presents near-natural vegetation types from all over the world and, besides the diversity of plants, shows their ecological relationships and functions. One of the facilities in the Ecological-Botanical Garden is the lysimeter system. With 28 individual experimental basins, it offers scientists the opportunity to quantify the water, nutrient and carbon balance of agricultural crops. In addition, the system is equipped with a rolling greenhouse that automatically covers part of the planted basins when it rains, thus keeping precipitation out. This means that experiments can be conducted with controlled drought stress, which is particularly urgent in view of the increasingly frequent droughts. "In the course of a new research project, we had to modernise the rolling greenhouse at the lysimeter system. It was no longer functional and also didn't meet today's safety requirements anymore," explains Holger Quindt, Electrical Officer at the University of Bayreuth.

Solution

"For the energy supply system in the fully automated rolling greenhouse, we wanted a clean and future-proof solution, so we together decided on a basic flizz complete system," says Oliver Köhler, Sales Engineer at igus. "Apart from that, the use of an e-chain was, from our point of view, without alternative, as a busbar system is not recommended in the outdoor area due to weather and signal transmission. Alternatives such as a trailing cable or a festooning system would have been too maintenance-prone and, in this case, too expensive. Our E2/000 series energy chain was the ideal choice for this application. It is cost-effective, easy to install, very robust and runs quietly over long travels of up to 150 metres." The basic flizz is a complete system and consists of an energy chain filled with the highly flexible chainflex cables from igus and guided safely and without disruptions in a weatherproof enclosure made of stainless steel. The basic flizz system is designed to protect the cable from dirt and extreme weather conditions. The travel of the fully automated rolling greenhouse at the University of Bayreuth amounts to approximately 21 metres. To compensate for misalignments, a floating moving end was installed, which further extends the service life of the entire application. Due to the cross sections and the number of cores, the experts at igus decided to use the chainflex control cables CF9, CF10 and CF77.UL.D as well as the motor cable CF34.UL.D. All cables are UV-resistant and designed for maximum stress. "We have the largest test laboratory in the industry at our command, where we perform over ten billion test cycles per year with energy chains and chainflex cables. This allows us to guarantee reliability, even with long travels, many cycles as well as the most extreme environmental conditions," says Oliver Köhler.