Chainflex® Cables

Technical Specifications Let igus do the work for you:
Chainflex QuickSpec

igus Chainflex® cables have been specially developed and tested for use in Energy Chain applications.Chainflex Cables

A full range of cables are available from stock, with no minimum order quantity:

  • Shielded and unshielded
  • Control cables
  • Power cables
  • Signal cables
  • Bus cables
  • Servo cables
  • Twisted Pair
  • Twisted Pair, individually shielded
  • Koax
  • 24 AWG to 350 MCM
  • various jacket materials (resistant to oil, heat, cold, chemicals)

Chainflex cables were developed by Igus because demands placed upon cables can be severe:

  • They are subject to constant cycling at high speeds
  • They must be able to bend in a small radius
  • The outer jacket must be resistant to abrasion
  • Even if two cables lie on top of each other they should bring successful results "Corkscrews" and core damage must be avoided at all costs as otherwise expensive production downtime results

When developing Chainflex®, igus met these demands. igus Chainflex® features the following unique qualities:

  • Small bending radii down to five times the outside diameter even with continuous operation
  • For applications in unsupported Energy Chains, 5 million cycles are possible if installed correctly ( a considerably higher cycle life can be achieved, depending on the application design)

All Chainflex® types are based upon the following design principles:

  1. Single strand diameter and pitch are optimized for use with Energy Chains in each application so as to avoid kinking and to guarantee an extremely high flexural strength. Thus, individual wires with maximum flexibility (super-fine stranding) have been avoided.
  2. The extruded inner jacket is firmly positioned on the conductor to prevent the conductor from forming "corkscrews." The inner jacket material is particularly resistant to abrasion and is of particularly high quality from both mechanical and electrical viewpoints.

Chainflex cross-sectionThe particularly good flexibility and excellent cycle life are attained by a low torsion braid with an extremely short pitch length. Cables with less than 12 conductors are braided in one layer. To overcome the well-known problems of the "corkscrew" and "pigtail" effects, as well as conductor breakage, the conductors of cable types with more than 12 conductors are not braided in layers but are roped in groups of three, four, or five conductors, like steel cable.

Within the braiding, dividing and sliding agents are used as well as torsion-reducing elements. The mechanically high-quality outer jacket, which is adapted for use in Energy Chain, is extruded gusset filling and thus mechanically coupled with the braiding due to the consistent bending of the Energy Chain, and can be cushioned by the outer jacket.

Piece testing during manufacturing is carried out regularly with at least one million cycles. During the subsequent examination of the cable it must be fully intact, with no conductor breakage. Testing of new cable types requires cycle-counts clearly higher than this number.