Design: Gliding, Long Travel Cable Carrier Applications

Cable carriers guide and protect moving cables and hoses at low to high speeds, over long and short distances, in all axes, and in a wide range of different applications all over the world.

Over the years, cable carrier manufacturers have increasingly pushed the envelope in terms of higher speeds, longer distances and heavier loads. Cable carriers are an extremely low maintenance solution and can withstand extreme conditions, such as low or high temperatures, harsh weather conditions, sea water, chemical exposure, and more.

Cable carriers offer a longer service life and increased system reliability due to superior technology in comparison to cable reels or festoons, for example. They also save on installation space and can reduce the length of cable required by more than 50%. No additional drives or control systems are required.

Travel speeds up to 16.4 ft/s in continuous operation are possible and exist on current applications. In special cases, even higher speeds are possible.

For example, igus® E4/100 and E4/4 energy chains achieve speeds of 72 ft/s and accelerations of 2,572 ft/s in crash test units.

Acceleration plays a large role in the calculation. Differentiations must be made between normal operational acceleration and a sudden jolt of acceleration, such as unexpected stops.

Service life

Cable carriers with 656 ft travels have been in operation for 8 years with minimum maintenance*. Cable carriers travelling up to 197 ft have been in operation for 12 years with almost no maintenance*.

*Source: igus test laboratory

Long travel applications can run in water, in dirt, in the tropics, in explosion risk areas (if they have certain special design features, such as material suitable for electrostatic-discharge applications) and many other conditions.

Guide troughs are also available in corrosion-free materials.

Test results

igus® uses tests to determine:

• push-pull forces under both ambient and extreme temperatures, humidity, and dirt;
• cable carrier friction values, alone and against various glide services;
• behavior of electrical cables under push-pull conditions;
• behavior of hydraulic and media hoses under push-pull conditions;
• service life, and noise generation.

Before choosing to work with a cable carrier supplier, decide if some or all of these points are applicable to your application and gather the related test data to compare before you move ahead with procurement.