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Supply: igus
igus is launching a brand new vitality provide system for SCARA robots in cleanrooms: the Clear SCARA Cable Answer is manufactured from tribologically optimized high-performance plastics and works nearly particle-free in response to ISO Class 2 even in high-speed purposes. Additionally it is stronger and extra user-friendly than basic corrugated hoses.
In electronics manufacturing, tiny particles invisible to the bare eye can wreak havoc, ruining digital parts, semiconductors, and shows. Due to this fact, it’s essential that machines like SCARA robots, which transfer quickly alongside 4 axes in beneath a second, generate as little friction and contamination as doable.
Throughout these high-speed purposes, there’s all the time a threat that tiny particles will detach from corrugated hoses and tubes. Sustaining ultra-clean manufacturing circumstances is crucial to stop microscopic contaminants from damaging electronics.
Simply as microscopic particles can silently destroy manufacturing in electronics, contamination is a continuing risk that should be guarded towards vigilantly. With machines shifting at excessive speeds under a second, any friction dangers releasing particles that might doubtlessly destroy delicate electronics and parts. By minimizing contamination, producers can keep away from catastrophic injury on the smallest scales.
“Discovering a option to information cables and hoses on a SCARA robotic in a cleanroom is a science in itself. Quick actions are pure stress for the fabric, which releases unwelcome abrasion particles,” says Matthias Meyer, Head of the triflex and Robotics Enterprise Unit at igus.
Because of this, igus has added a cleanroom variant to the SCARA Cable Answer vitality provide system, which it initially developed in 2020.
“The brand new Clear SCARA Cable Answer is a cleanroom-compatible vitality provide system for high-speed purposes – dependable, compact, simple to make use of, and fast to retrofit,” says Meyer.
ISO Class 2: hardly any particles within the surrounding air, even with the wildest actions
The core of the brand new cleanroom vitality provide system is the e-skin smooth, a modular e-chain cable service that guides cables and hoses in an arc from the robotic’s vertical arm to the top effector. Its separable higher and decrease shells may be mixed to kind a closed, dust-proof, waterproof tube. This ensures that particles from the cables and hoses don’t get into the encompassing air from the within – even in the course of the wildest actions.
“To scale back stress on the cables and enhance their sturdiness, we’ve got offered a rotating mount for the connections to the fastened and shifting ends of the vitality provide system,” says Meyer. “That’s what is particular concerning the vitality provide system. On the similar time, the rotary bearings are designed to be nearly particle-free, even throughout probably the most dynamic actions.”
The e-chain itself can also be particularly abrasion-resistant due to tribologically optimized high-performance plastic. Its ISO certification by Fraunhofer Institute specialists confirms this. The Clear SCARA Cable Answer has ISO Class 2, which means that it’s so abrasion-resistant {that a} most of 100 particles as much as a measurement of 0.1 microns may be present in one cubic meter of air throughout operation. For comparability, a sheet of paper is 80 microns thick, or 800 occasions as thick as a particle.
Clear SCARA Cable Answer as an alternative choice to basic corrugated hoses
With its new vitality provide system, igus provides an alternative choice to basic corrugated hoses, which has two different benefits in addition to cleanroom compatibility. First, the skinny corrugated hoses most frequently used with the SCARA have hardly any inherent rigidity and are, due to this fact, vulnerable to kinking. There is no such thing as a bearing to soak up torsion and might tear simply.
“Not like corrugated hoses, the Clear SCARA Cable Answer helps itself and has a singular rotary bearing. This makes it very best for brief unsupported lengths and extremely dynamic purposes,” says Meyer. “The oval chain geometry is particularly advantageous when lateral forces are utilized because it provides further energy.”
Customary SCARA vitality provide options use static connections on the shifting and glued ends. This results in pointless fatigue on the corrugated tube at each factors and elevated put on on the cable bundle. The Clear SCARA Cable Answer makes use of rotary connections at each ends, which all however eliminates mechanical stress on the vitality provide system. With the excessive speeds seen in Scara purposes, this enchancment is a recreation changer.
The second benefit over the corrugated hose is that the zipper precept makes the Clear SCARA Cable Answer simple to open, enabling customers to insert cables and hoses shortly. An optionally available inside separation offers further safety that corrugated hoses can’t. Upon request, the client can obtain the brand new cleanroom vitality chain as a ready-to-connect full system with igus chainflex cables. Greater than 900 extremely versatile cables of IPA Class 1 can be found.