Put to the Ultimate Test – Part 3: Drag Chain Tests

In the third part of our series, we’ll introduce you to drag chain tests.

Energy chains – also known as drag chains – are ideal for guiding and protecting electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic cables in moving machinery and equipment. They are used in situations where machine components are moving back and forth – for example in lifts, machine tools and in the control stations of high-bay warehouses. The guide ensures that the smallest permissible bending radius for the cables is not exceeded, thereby avoiding damage.

Drag chain cables are constantly moving – often non-stop around the clock – making fast accelerations, tight bending radii and continuous abrasion ongoing challenges. There are many applications where drag chains have to withstand millions of bending cycles undamaged, and at the same time be resilient to oil, heat and chemicals. Core insulation and sheathing materials of high quality are essential here to reduce the risk of abrasive wear which might damage the cables and lead to expensive machine outages.

The HELUKABEL portfolio contains special drag chain cables for moving applications in energy chains. To ensure that they meet the stringent demands of day-to-day use, we subject them to extensive testing in our testing laboratory in Windsbach, Germany. We have a variety of drag chain test facilities with traverse paths ranging from 0.9 to 40 metres. With accelerations of up to 50 m/s², velocities of up to 10 m/s and different chain radii, we can realistically simulate diverse operating conditions. The aim of these tests is to prove that the copper wires, core insulations, stranding and outer sheathing withstand constantly changing bending stresses undamaged and therefore meet our high quality standards.

Only cables that fulfil every one of our strict requirements find their way into our product portfolio. Hence, our drag chain cables are HELUKABEL’s contribution to ensuring that plant and machinery are able to operate both cost-effectively and efficiently over the long term, even in harsh conditions.

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