High flex cables are a specialized type of flexible cables designed to endure extensive bending, twisting, and continuous movement without compromising performance. These cables are essential in applications where flexibility and durability are paramount.
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High flex cables are commonly used in robotics, automated machinery, and industrial equipment where constant motion is required. They are also found in drag chains, where they must perform reliably under repetitive flexing conditions. Their ability to withstand such demanding environments makes them ideal for applications in manufacturing, automotive, and aerospace industries.
The construction of high flex cables includes fine-stranded copper conductors, which provide superior flexibility and reduce the risk of wire breakage. The insulation and jacketing materials, such as PVC, TPE, or polyurethane, are chosen for their resistance to abrasion, chemicals, and extreme temperatures. These materials ensure that the cables remain intact and functional over prolonged use. Additionally, high flex cables often feature reinforced designs, such as layered construction or special braiding, to enhance their durability and flexibility.
The primary benefit of high flex cables is their ability to perform reliably in applications requiring continuous movement. They reduce the risk of downtime and equipment failure due to cable fatigue or breakage. High flex cables also contribute to the overall efficiency and longevity of the equipment they are used in, ensuring consistent performance even in the most challenging conditions.
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In summary, high flex cables are considered essential for applications that involve constant motion and require exceptional durability. Their robust construction and specialized materials enable them to withstand extensive flexing and harsh environments, making them the preferred choice for various industrial and commercial applications. Understanding the specific needs of your application will help you choose the right high flex cable to ensure optimal performance and reliability.
The simplest cable is a solid wire with a plastic sheath. It can bend and retains this bending &#; if you don&#;t do it too often, because otherwise the wire breaks. Simple cables like these are used in house installations. Once installed, the cable remains in place for decades untouched. Solid wires like these aren&#;t suitable for many other applications where cables need to be flexible and elastic. Here, the conductors in the cores are made up of strands, fine wire bundles that can be bent millions of times, depending on the design, without breaking and losing their current or data transmission properties.
One of the most annoying locations for a cable is a drag chain. Here, power, servo and data cables are located close together and move back and forth as a machine works. Sometimes faster than five metres per second with more than five times the acceleration of gravity. The cables are laid in the drag chain in such a way that they&#;re bent in just one direction. However, this is only one of three possible types of movement
Special robot cables differ from other robust cables for moving applications in many respects. The key difference: robotic cables withstand both bending and torsion for the entire lifetime. During development, they are fundamentally designed in a different way to a power chain cable, for example. Three parameters are important for a robot cable:
In addition to the braided conductor class, there are other aspects that distinguish between a flexible cable and a less flexible one. One is the stranding. In order to understand what this means, here is a comparison that everyone knows: a braid of hair. The more closely you braid it, the thicker the braid becomes; the thicker and thinner areas alternate. If you gather together the same number of strands of hair in a parallel bundle, it is noticeably thinner. It becomes thicker when you twist the bundle of hair. Something similar happens with copper strands in &#;stranding&#;. The fine metal wires are twisted because this improves the flexibility &#; if all the strands and all the cores were parallel, the outer copper wires would be stretched at each bending of the cable and the inner ones would be compressed. This would make the cable very rigid. Thickness and flexibility can be controlled by the length of lay: the distance for a round of twisting. If it is longer, and consequently has less twist, the cable turns out thinner
Cables that are subject to a lot of movement contain a sliding support, which helps the components inside to move against each other with as low friction as possible. They also act as a filler that keeps the cable round. This is important if the cable runs through a gland or into a connector. If the sheath isn&#;t properly round, there are problems with leaks. Sliding supports can be stranded fine plastic fibres that fit into the gaps between the cores. Thicker cores are often wrapped in a polytetrafluoroethylene film fleece wrapping to make it easier for them to slide against one another, particularly under torsion
Whether a cable can withstand such movements over a long period depends on the sheath material. The material experts face the challenge of combining other properties, such as fire behaviour or resistance to oil, chemicals and cleaning agents, in addition to mobility. PVC continues to dominate the market for sheath materials, but other materials such as thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) or polyurethane have emerged as the first choice for highly dynamic applications, e.g. in the ÖLFLEX® Servo FD 796 CP servo cable. Polypropylene has proved particularly suitable for insulating the cores in moving applications. It has excellent electrical insulation properties, and also has high strength and low density.
Fibre optic cables are the first choice for very high data rates over long distances. They consist of plastic optical fibres (POF) for shorter distances of up to 70 metres, plastic cladded fibres (PCF) for distances of up to 100 metres and glass fibres for even larger distances and applications requiring the highest data rates. In principle, all fibre types are suitable for flexible applications as long as the recommended bending radii are observed. Then you don&#;t need to be afraid that a glass fibre could split. However, in order to achieve the highest possible transmission performance, the bending radius in fibre optic cables should be at least 15 times greater than the diameter. While a lower bending radius will not cause it to break, it will lead to increased attenuation, meaning that light is lost in the tight curve and the signal quality will suffer. The material enveloping the fibres largely determines how well a fibre optic cable can withstand movements. Aramide fibres, i.e. synthetic fibres that give bulletproof vests or fibre-reinforced plastics their exceptional properties, are often used here. If the cable is stretched, the textile sheath absorbs the tensile force and prevents the fibre optic cable from also being stretched.