Technologically advanced materials have revolutionised many applications in agricultural environment with engineered plastics able to outperform and outlast steel in heavy-duty applications such as bearings, bushes and protective housings.
They have also enabled modern manufacturers to develop strong and durable solutions for age-old problems such as reducing wear, reducing maintenance, protecting cables and providing flexible control for robotics and automation through the development of specially produced cable management solutions.
In South Africa polymer manufacturer, igus, produces solutions for all types of machines. A recent exciting innovation to reduce damage to cables and hoses is its “moving conduits” which it calls energy chains (e-chains). These can be developed for cables from 3mm to massive 300mm hoses in applications that replace festoons, busbars and cable reel drums and enhance machine operations.
Its e-chains are often used in the agriculture industry to manage hydraulic hoses, chemical/water hoses or pneumatics hoses plus all electrical type cables. Example, spraying equipment.
At the forefront of these technological developments, the German manufacturer supplies countries like South Africa and acts as a hub for the rest of the world and introduces several hundred advanced plastic products to the market every year. This includes its speciality chainflex cables made especially for moving or motion cables. With production facilities across the globe and igus South Africa as a fully autonomous local operation, the country’s engineers have a wealth of products and materials that can dramatically improve equipment and processes.
igus South Africa managing director, Ian Hewat, says the company is actively engaging with various industries to introduce these new solutions into the local market. Whether it is the replacement of bushings with greaseless and maintenance free polymer alternatives on agriculture equipment, heavy duty excavator, grab hooks and packaging machines or simple high-glide linear polymer bearings that reduce wear and eliminates wear on the shaft of the machine.
“It is time for the local industry to embrace new motion plastic materials and tap into a world of reduced maintenance, safer working environments, greaseless operation and vastly simplified mechanics offered through the use of polymers. Our slogan at igus is “improve what moves with Zero lubrication” and we work with customers and entire industries to find solutions that can drive costs down and product life up.
“Our e-chains for example allows direct continuous control with no slip rings or joints required for added reliability, while having specially developed cables for different applications significantly improves the reliability of the cable systems and provides reduced maintenance and increased lifespans, which in turn increases a system’s mean-time-to-failure. Best of all we have solutions for almost all industries wherever there is moving and dynamic cables for measuring, fibre optics, power, servo cables, control, Bus and data systems,” says Ian.
Simultaneously, advanced new materials in the manufacture of polymer Bushes and Linear solutions allows engineers to replace a wide variety of steel and other traditional bearings. igus polymer bearings make use of Tribology materials that include polymer, fibre and dry lubricants into the polymer.
They are manufactured with the latest igus patented materials for self-lubrication that provides a lifetime of maintenance free operation that is usually far longer than traditional types. Even in the heaviest and dirtiest of conditions these materials can perform flawlessly and can even run underwater with no contamination. Similarly, they can maintain continuous operation in the hottest and driest of conditions or provide corrosion or chemical resistance with any one of its 40+ different standards base materials.
Perhaps the biggest measure of the success of the advanced products from igus is the uptake of its products across the 50 plus industries we are currently supporting, with agriculture being a proven market for us.
