Industrial robots are everywhere in large-scale manufacturing, providing fast automation of processes and ensuring cost-efficiency for companies. igus has developed a family of long-lasting Ethernet cables, the CFRobot8.Plus, to ensure that communication between the robot’s axes, control systems and superordinate systems functions flawlessly, even under extreme stress.

The cables, available in Australia from Treotham Automation, have been tested under torsion for several years in igus’s in-house laboratory and run absolutely fault-free for more than 15 million cycles. Testing is still ongoing to determine the expected maximum service life, with the final results being expected in a few years.

The International Federation of Robotics estimates that by 2020 more than 3 million industrial robots will operate worldwide, just to drive automation in manufacturing. At the same time, the requirements for safe communication are also rising.

“The probability that the communication of the future will be dominated by industrial Ethernet is quite high,” explains Rainer Rössel, igus’s chainflex cables division manager.

igus has been developing Ethernet cables for extreme three-dimensional stress and safe data transmission between robotic components for more than five years. At SPS IPC Drives 2018, it presented the CFRobot8.Plus cable family to a specialist audience.

“With our new robot cable we have become the only manufacturer worldwide to offer a durable and tested torsion cable from stock, with up to +/-360 degrees torsion angle, and thus fill a gap in the market,” says Rössel.

Treotham Automation
1300 65 75 64
www.treotham.com.au