Hybrid cable for the energy chain

Manufacturer differences

Hybrid technology is the biggest trend in the cable industry in the last few years. Key terms here are One Cable Connection (Siemens) and One Cable Technology (Beckhoff). This technology usually combines four power cores (L1, L2, L3 and PE), one pair for functions such as temperature monitoring, and cores for a bus system in a cable. Every large drive manufacturer uses its own bus system. Beckhoff, for example, uses SICK's Hiperface DSL, and Siemens uses an Ethernet derivative. We at igus have joined this technological trend and optimised the mechanical cable design for energy chains. Our CF220.UL.H and CF280.UL.H hybrid cables can be connected to drive systems from the major OEMs without any problem.

Hybrid cables in woodworking

A major manufacturer of woodworking machines converted its drive technology to the new Beckhoff hybrid technology, capitalising on the advantages of the more compact design. The challenge was with the cables, which in their machines have to perform a great many movements with very tight radii. This is where igus entered the race with a challenging service life test. It was challenging because the requirement was to also measure the Hiperface DSL bus data transmission over its use. That is why we worked very closely with our customer to achieve reliable results for both of us. Feel free to send us a query when you need to test cable solution durability.