With the introduction of its chainflex guarantee club, energy supply system specialist igus has become the first and only system supplier to combine its cable programme for constantly moving applications with a guaranteed lifetime in energy chains. In the chainflex guarantee club, machine builders and equipment manufacturers can receive a guarantee via certification that goes far beyond the basic legal conditions.
"We guarantee durability and functional safety of our cables to give customers planning security," says igus director Justin Leonard. "The aim is to give binding statements about the durability of igus chainflex cables in the energy chain; for this purpose, we originated a guarantee programme for all chainflex cables from the catalogue.
"Whoever registers will receive a standardised guarantee that goes far beyond the legal guarantee of 12 months. The respective guarantee depends on the annual turnover the customer has with chainflex cables and is defined by duration or the number of double strokes of the machine performs."
There are three different steps of certification: In the "Orange" status, the guarantee comprises 18 months or five million double strokes, the "Silver" status, 24 months or seven and a half million double strokes – and the Gold status customers obtain a guarantee of 36 months or ten million double strokes.
An igus engineer certifies and – according to the guarantee level – trains the manufacturer’s assembling and engineering personnel free of charge.
igus also offers more performance within the scope of the chainflex Guarantee Club. For example, comprehensive consulting with respect to good practice handling and installing cables at the user’s premises as well as reducing process costs and optimisation of complete energy chain systems.
"We are able to make guarantee commitments because of our extensive testing competence," adds Justin. "Our test machines carry out more than 2 billion strokes and 1.4 million electrical measurements every year."
Decades of experience have demonstrated that to understand the behaviour of cables in energy chains, requires specific test procedures. For this reason igus operates the largest test laboratory in the industry covering over 1,750 square metres and have conducted about 300,000 tests in the last 20 years." More than 700 cables are constantly in motion; other tests include resistance to chemicals, as well as cold tests (down to -40 degC) and torsional tests. On the basis of these test series, igus is in the position to make clear statements with respect of durability and lifetime of its chainflex cables.
Above all, igus is the only supplier to offer a lifetime calculation online tool for its cables – where every user can calculate almost all igus products, therefore, find out the exact lifetime of the respective cable – and order it too. In addition to the functional safety and lifetime of chainflex cables and systems, igus also guarantees competition decisive "soft factors" such as fast delivery of components and systems worldwide.