Impressive dynamics: Energy chains in rat trap production

• What was needed: energy chain with pre-assembled cable
• Requirements: Compact design, possibility of displacement for maintenance, durability at high speed & acceleration
• Products: e-chain® series 1500, 2500, 3500, E2.15, E2.38, B15, readycable® Hybrid suitable for Beckhoff
• Industry: Production of pest control elements
• Success for the customer: Joint development for the most efficient design, optimisation for the simplest maintenance and minimum space consumption of the system.

About the application:
The application is a production line for the mass production of rat traps. Starting from raw materials such as pre-cut blocks of wood and wire coils, the system has the ability to manufacture and assemble all elements of the trap in a work cycle of 1.5 seconds per part, in addition to its very high and constant production capacity. Speeds of 2,100 mm/s and accelerations of 26,000 mm/s² are achieved.

The production machine is installed at a plant in Pennsylvania, USA. When designing it, the focus had to be on space requirements. The limited space available required the most compact implementation possible. Accessibility for maintenance work was also important and could not be restricted. For this reason, solutions were sought in which the machine operators could work as comfortably as possible; to make this possible, the various stations of the machine must be able to be brought into a maintenance position. Another challenge was the high speed to which some energy chains were exposed, such as the gantry systems. These systems are responsible for the provision of logs and their movement during the work process.

In order to achieve the cycle time required by the end customer, an "electronic cam controller" was developed to connect the more than 80 servomotors used. Each station of the system had to be brought into the respective maintenance position. To do this, a large number of servo cables, hoses for the pneumatic elements and hoses for the automated lubrication system had to be routed in an energy chain. The ability to move the stations created in this way contributed to significant cost savings and a general increase in efficiency (in addition to the now convenient operation of the design). Another added value was the joint development of the production system, which is now much more compact and therefore takes up very little space - in line with the customer's system layout. The parameters of linear speed and acceleration were also achieved thanks to the energy chain, which was customised to the application.