igus’ Flexibility First Monitoring System for Robotic Cable Carriers Emphasizes Safety

igus®, introduces i.Sense TR.B, the world’s first breakage monitoring system for multi-axis cable carriers.

Robots have long been an indispensable part of many areas of industrial production, and their range of tasks continues to grow in the wake of digitization. Whether welding, painting, soldering, or palletizing, industrial robots work dynamically. A flexible multi-axis dress pack such as triflex® R from igus makes it possible to guide and secure cables and hoses used on multi-axis robots.

igus has developed the i.Sense TR.B, a real-time breakage monitoring system for the multi-dimensional triflex R robotic dress pack to detect potential chain breaks due to extreme loads and avoid unplanned machine breakdowns.

Smart real-time condition monitoring

With i.Sense TR.B, customers can increase the safety of their robot systems with an investment of just a few hundred dollars. The i.Sense TR.B sensor is connected directly to the PLC customer control – without additional software costs. If a chain link breaks, the system detects the change in length of the rope installed in the chain and can accordingly send out a digital signal to the system control. Instant breakage detection enables immediate maintenance measures and can thus avoid unplanned downtimes and total failures in the event of individual chain link breakages.

Richard Habering, Head of Business Unit smart plastics at igus:

“Particularly in applications such as automotive production lines with extremely high output, any downtime can cause costs of several €100,000. Real-time status monitoring of the energy supply system in industrial robots, therefore, offers users considerable added value.”

Sustainable maintenance with smart plastics

With the help of numerous test series in the industry’s largest test laboratory, igus is continuously working on further optimizing the quality and durability of its products. The combination of a triflex R flexible cable carrier with high tensile force absorption and the i.Sense TR.B sensor, makes it possible to guide and protect robot cables, thus significantly increasing service life.

Condition-based maintenance using the TR.B sensor makes maintenance more sustainable, as users can avoid unnecessary or premature product replacement. And if there is a chain break, the sensor can be reused after an emergency shutdown of the system.