What exactly is an “application for long travels”?

The principle of gliding application: If the upper run of the energy chain rests on its lower run during the travel, it is called a “gliding application”. If the unsupported length is not sufficient, the gliding application is the best alternative for long travels.

For lateral guidance, a guide trough or a guide channel is usually required.

Long travels can be found in a number of applications, such as cranes, ports or power plants. Energy chains can – in contrast to other long-distance energy supply systems – safely guide data, energy, light waves, liquids and air into one system. In addition, high speeds combined with a high fill weight often pose problems for energy supply systems such as motor cable drums, busbars or festooning. Energy chain systems from igus can be moved without problems on travels of up to 1200 metres and more at a speed of 10 m/s and with 50 kg/m fill weight. Both indoors and outdoors, the energy chain systems from igus have been successfully used for more than 20 years in over 30,000 gliding long travels. Most gliding applications can be directly shipped from stock with standard parts from the igus modular kit. Furthermore, there is also a separate team, which deals exclusively with special solutions for long travels. For example, there are floating moving ends to compensate for lateral movements, guide troughs with climb guards, force monitoring systems, and more.