Conveyor unit of coal excavator
The winner of this year’s golden vector® is also the longest travel ever to be realised with plastic Energy Chains® in the world.
vector® award
...for inspiring energy supply solutions... ...E-ChainSystems® with cables... ...induction and wireless...Modern plastic energy chains® are the umbilical cord of the automation, machine and plant engineering industries. These energy chains® ensure the safe supply of energy, data, pulses and operating media and are always in motion. Energy chains® are suitable for multipurpose use in the crane and machine tool industries and in the robotics and clean room industries. Aside the contact free E-Chains® per induction and Wireless- data transfer regerates further ways.
Bucket wheel reclaimer
This bucket wheel reclaimer also has to be equipped with a assembling of +/-180° which can move in a circle. The E-Chains® have to acced this movement.
Travelling column milling machine
The bronze vector® went to the advanced development of a travelling column milling machine.
Dragon robot
A robot as an actor: Tradinno is one of the main actors in Germany's oldest folk play the "Further Drachenstich".
Wind tunnel scales
These scales which are used for tests in the wind tunnel can be turned through 180° in both directions away from their original position.
Movable melting furnace
The special requirement with this furnace system was the movement of the filled furnace weighing a total of 45 tonnes.
Theater lightning
When the rope cables for the load trains for stage lighting needed replacing, the decision was made to use igus® Energy Chains®.
Ship-to-shore-crane
A special challenge when designing this crane was noise reduction, because the harbour is in the direct vicinity of a residential area.
Test rig for solar systems
This test rig was able to be built thanks to the use of igus® E-Chains®.
X-ray robot
This newly developed X-ray robot presents a special challenge to Energy Chains®.
Driving robot
This vehicle is a robot that is used for the development of intelligent sensors for motor vehicles.
Roll stand for railway tracks
Up to now, the energy supply to the rollers in this railway track rolling mill has been realised using steel chains.
Hydraulic lifter in airplane hangar
Hydraulic working platforms in an airplane hangar for the Airbus A380 in Singapore are equipped with igus® E-Chains®.
Coating plant
The low room height in this coating plant for large pipes (diameter up to 2.5 metres) makes a space-saving design necessary
High-performance
milling machine
This application is a high-performance
milling machine for processing turbine blades.
Brake van
Here, a moving slide on a trailer is supplied with energy. The trailer is used as a brake van in “tractor pulling” competitions.
Hard drive enclosure
Small igus® E-Chains® of the series E2 micro route the power and data cables into a newly developed hard drive enclosure.
Ship-to-shore-crane
The replacement of the old roller E-ChainSystem® by an igus® P4 E-Chain® resulted in several advantages.
Horizontal lathe
This lathe is used to produce turbine parts or drilling rods, for example.
Ship-to-shore-crane
This ship-to-shore crane can not only lift the container and set it down again, the whole crane girder can be moved vertically
Solar powered mobile robotic vehicle
This vector® contribution concerns a completely surprising use for an E-Chain®.
Flexible desks
This new kind of desk system allows complete flexibility in the use of classrooms.
Sludge treatment
The largest plastic E-Chain® in the world, the E4.350, is used for this application.
Water gate
Here, the second largest lock in the world has been fitted with a new water gate.
Bucket wheel stacker
This contribution also concerns a circular application that has been designed with an igus® Energy Chain® with rearward bending radius.
Design motorbike
This vector® contribution presents a motorbike with an unusual design.
Hobbing machine
Hobbing is a continual toothing method and is very flexible and highly productive.
Robot in car factory
Extremely cramped conditions repeatedly led to problems with Energy Chains® used with robots in a car factory.
Fully automatic indoor crane
In halls in particular, every little bit of space often counts.
CNC machining centres
There are no standard component assemblies with these machining centres, because everything is tailor-made to customers’ specific wishes.
Parabolic antennas
The application presented here is in a parabolic antenna which is part of the European navigation system project “Galileo”.
Labeler for forwarding labels
This device prints forwarding labels and sticks them onto packed pallets.
Assembly robot
These robots assemble household appliances such as dishwashers. They ensure safe handling when welding two plastic moulded parts.
Crane in metal processing
With this indoor crane application, igus® E-Chains® can really show off their strengths.
Robot arm for labeling
The robot arm in this application labels car parts. Its special feature is the almost fence- less operation.
Crankshaft assembly
This system is used to press toothed wheels onto shafts under heat. Then the still hot shaft is brought to the cooling station by a linear guide.
Lithotripter
This device breaks down kidney stones using electromagnetic shock waves, so that an operation is no longer necessary.
Circuit board component placement “Speedmounter”
The high fail-safety of the E-Chains® and Chainflex® cables were the reason igus® products were used in this case.
Wash classifier
Dirt, sand and sludge are part of everyday life with a wash classifier. The Energy Chains® have to be able to cope.
Cableway switch
Every day, the cableway cabins on the Kitzsteinhorn cableway have to be moved off or put back onto the storage sidings in the top and bottom stations.
Inspection robot
This robot checks ventilation shafts before and after cleaning. Energy supply is via a cable
Flat motorbike
This motorbike prototype has been designed extremely flat to keep consumption as low as possible.
Calibration bench
This bench is used to calibrate inertia sensors which are used for inspecting pipelines, for example.
Solar vehicle
The use of Chainflex® cables achieved an increase in efficiency in this solar vehicle
Nano world machine
This vector® contribution is a machine that has been designed to demonstrate the world of nano particles to the public in museums and at exhibitions.
Machine tool for railway track plates
This machine tool requires a large number of different cables and hoses for the manufacture of track plates
Control robot
This robot in a car factory is the “supervisor” over five smaller robots that supply it.
Machining center
The focus here was on protecting the cables from dirt, chips and coolants during fast movements.
Excavator
Difficult environmental conditions such as dirt, lubricants, steel wool and temperatures between -30° and +50°C in particular make maximum demands on energy chains.
Lathe
This contribution to the vector® award is all about flexibility and multi-functionality.
Automatic Zinc Line
igus® Energy Chains® have successfully replaced the dangling cables previously used to supply the rotary drums in this zinc line.
Asphalt paver
The special feature of this asphalt paver is the adjustable control console.
Spot-welding robot
The downtimes have been drastically reduced through the use of an igus® solution for this robot in automotive construction, too.
High-frequency
spindle robot
This high-frequency spindle robot has been improved – not only in terms of looks – by the use of the universal module Triflex® RS.
Crane applications
In this case, two different crane applications have been realised using the igus® Energy Chain® series 5050 from the E4/4 range
Flume
This 10 metre flume is used to observe sediment deposits under numerous ambient conditions.
Assembly robot
The combination of movements in different axes makes it difficult to dimension the cables properly. If they are too short, they tear.
CNC machine
In this case, a simple trick solved a space problem: There were only 20 cm design height available, too low for a conventional solution with an Energy Chain®.
MIG welding robot
Cable protection is particularly important for this application, since the welding robot works with gas!
Crane in sawmill
This crane is to be used in a sawmill to transport up to 8 cubic metres of wood chips at once.
Servo manipulator
The servo manipulator presented here was used for the remote dismantling of a pipework system contaminated by radioactivity
Loading and unloading facility
These units can be used whenever wooden panel materials have to be transported, stacked, stored, turned or sorted.
Self-stabilizing platform "Ampelmann“
This platform, which has been given the name “Ampelmann”, is used on the open sea.
Bucket wheel reclaimer
This bucket wheel reclaimer also has to be equipped with a assembling of +/-180° which can move in a circle. The E-Chains® have to acced this movement.
Crane in casting house
These three cranes are used to transport containers with liquid metal in a casting house.
Ice sculpture device
Every day, an ice sculpture for the glittering world of Las Vegas is created here fully automatically.
Industrial scanners
Here, igus® E-Chains® are used in two industrial scanner applications. With the first application, cracks can be determined in concrete slabs.
Robot for car glass handling
igus® Triflex® R has successfully replaced the previous solution attempted with this robot, too.
Transportation units for car assembly
These racks are used to transport car bodies and consumables from coating to the paintshop in passenger car assembly.
Pipeline welding equipment
With this application, the focus was on high heat resistance.
Tobacco packaging
A lot of dust occurs during the tobacco packing. For this reason, an E-Chain® that works perfectly even under very dusty conditions had to be found for this packaging machine.
Fridge assembly
Initially, steel chains were used for foam feeding in this fridge assembly line.
More applications from different sectors