The benefits of prepopulated cable carriers from igus®
By Jared Worth
Properly installing cables into a cable carrier may seem like a simple task on the surface. However, this isn’t the case. Considerations like proper minimum bend radius, interior separation, mounting brackets, and even cable choice need to be made to avoid cable damage or breakage. This is why igus® offers prepopulated e-chain® cable carriers — from stock cables and cable carriers assembled and shipped as a single package. Read on to learn more about prepopulated cable carriers, and the advantages they offer over separate cables and cable carriers.
Save time & money
The clearest advantages of prepopulated e-chain cable carriers are the cost and time savings offered. Instead of needing to individually find and order all the necessary cables along with a cable carrier and any additional accessories, you can order a single solution all at once. You can work directly with igus’ own in-house staff to determine the ideal product for your application, complete with proper installation. When you receive the populated e-chain, you simply need to add connectors to the cables and install the complete system.
Best of all, there are no modifications made to any of the products used in pre-populated e-chain. Everything comes directly from stock, keeping the price of the completed system as affordable as possible.
Expert assistance
As alluded to previously, the team of experts at igus handles all flexible cable installation within the e-chain itself. Our team consists of customer service reps, salespeople, our in-house engineers and assembly team. This ensures all installation is handled properly, and premature cable wear and damage is avoided entirely. No tweaking or configuration is required on the customer’s end, helping to get their system up and running as quickly as possible without any setbacks.
igus experts are not only available for installation, but for various aspects of the order process as well. They can provide accurate, up-to-date price quotes for the completed system, as well as assist customers with the design itself and provide technical drawings of the finalized design for customer review.
Best of all, our expert team can visit you virtually or in-person to review your project and ensure everything being put together, from the chain and cable down to interior separation and mounting brackets, are appropriately chosen and will be the right fit for the application. This means any issues in the design phase — like cable bend radius violations, improper interior separation, or mounting brackets not working with a particular application — are avoided from the get-go.
From-stock products
While specific configurations can vary between different orders, all of the cables and cable carriers used in prepopulated e-chain are unmodified, from-stock products This helps not only keep cost down by avoiding unique modifications, but allows for systems to be shipped in as few as 10 business days, with expediting options available as well.
Keeping all the individual products unmodified not only shortens shipping time and cost, but allows for extremely simple reordering of the same system. Whether you’re outfitting new machinery with the same system, or replacing an older system at the end of its service life, you can simply reorder using the custom part number created for the original system, no additional work or information required.
Being able to easily reorder the exact same prepopulated chain with the same configurations and design allows for a “set it and forget it” approach to the system and takes away
Custom solutions
It may seem like choices are limited when it comes to custom prepopulated e-chain systems due to all parts coming directly from stock, but systems can still be tailored to specific applications quite easily. A number of different online configurators are available to help design your system. You can easily configure linear cable carriers, multi-axis robotic cable carriers, and even specific interior separation for either type of cable carrier. Combined with assistance from the igus team of experts, creating a unique solution for specific application requirements is a simple, painless process.
If you already have some of your own cables that you want to include in your prepopulated chain, that’s no issue either. Pull cords can be provided in the chain, which allow you to tie one end of your own cable and pull it through the entire chain without needing to adjust the interior separation. With every individual chain link having its own interior separation — and a single chain being made up of potentially hundreds of links — pull cords are essential if non-igus cables are being used.
Conclusion
Selecting the proper cables and cable carrier on its own can be daunting, not to mention setup and installation. But prepopulated e-chain from igus makes the process extremely simple and straightforward, with experts assisting with the bulk of the configuration and assembly processes. So consider saving yourself the hassle by choosing prepopulated e-chain.
For questions about prepopulated cable carriers or a specific application, contact a chainflex® expert or e-chain expert. You can also call us directly at 800-965-2496.
