Wear-resistant plastic energy chain under high acid load in indoor cranes

In the past, so-called festooning systems were used in the pre-treatment line of Wiegel's hot dip galvanising plants. Cables and hoses are suspended like a garland here and moved with small trolleys. The disadvantage of this technology, however, is that a cable station at the end of the travel path takes up a lot of space and the area of the pre-treatment line cannot be completely sealed off. In addition, the rollers of the cable trolleys sometimes fail after some time, as the C-profiles in which they are guided corrode and become sharp-edged due to the exposure to acid. This causes the rollers to wear quickly.

The project management of the technology department at Wiegel Verwaltung GmbH & Co KG decided in favour of polymer-energy chains from our product range, which offered the customer two main advantages: They ensure a tightly sealed solution for the material preparation area, which was not previously the case with a festooning system, as well as high wear resistance.
The first energy chain was installed in a Wiegel plant in 2015. The next application followed a year later, where we supplied both the E4/4 series energy chain and the new plastic trough made from the chemical-resistant material igumid EG+. This ensures high chemical resistance, making the guide trough ideal for use in hot dip galvanising or fertiliser production, for example. The material igumid EG+ is characterised by very low total moisture absorption. This enables increased resistance to aggressive chemicals. With its significantly optimised sliding properties, the material can be used for the guide trough and also for most e-chains series in a temperature range from 0°C to +100°C. As both the e-chain and the trough in the complete system are made of the chemical-resistant material, they form a very good mating surface.