Flexible high-performance cabling systems pass the toughest tests

igus® and Telegärtner test flexible RJ45 industrial cabling under practical conditions

Excellent transmission properties and a long service life with extreme mobility - these are the requirements that machine builders and automation specialists place on cabling systems with flexible cables. High-performance networks for 10 Gigabit/s Ethernet must also fulfil these requirements in Industrial Ethernet. igus® and Telegärtner have jointly put together a cabling solution that passes even the toughest tests with practical reserves. The combination of chainflex® cable and MFP8 RJ45 connectors offers outstanding transmission properties even after millions of movements.

The individual components of a cabling line are tested by the manufacturers in the test laboratory in accordance with standards. To ensure that the user can be sure that the ready-made solution will function reliably in the long term, it must also be subjected to strict, practical tests. This applies in particular to solutions with flexible cables that are exposed to high mechanical loads.

igus® For this reason, the German and Telegärtner companies have joined forces and comprehensively tested various pre-assembled cabling solutions in the laboratories of both companies. The focus was on product solutions with highly flexible conductors for Ethernet and PROFINET applications, which are increasingly being used in almost all areas of automation technology where large amounts of data need to be transmitted quickly and reliably.

chainflex®Developed for flexible applications
chainflex®-cables from igus® were developed from the ground up for use in moving energy chain systems and have proven themselves in a wide range of applications. Among others, the Cat. 6A-cable CFBUS.050 with TPE-outer jacket, in which the cable elements are stranded with a particularly short pitch length, was tested. The precise, very tightly braided overall shield and four pair shields provide reliable and durable protection against external electrical interference. chainflex®The bus cable with PVC and PURjacket were also tested.

Connectors with special wire contacting
The RJ45 modular connectors of the MFP8 series from Telegärtner are characterised by innovative and particularly reliable wire contacting. The individual cores of a cable are pierced during harnessing. The special piercing technology guarantees a particularly stable connection with outstanding transmission values. The connector can be assembled in the field and can be installed on site without special tools, even in tight spaces. The cores are reliably fixed in the specially dimensioned chambers without any gaps, ensuring a stable, force-fit connection with optimum signal transmission.

The innovative "Insulation Piercing Contact" (IPC) technology used by Telegärtner for wire diameters that a standard RJ45 crimp connector cannot accommodate has not only proven itself in industrial applications, but also ensures permanently reliable contacting in telecommunication cable networks and in high-quality IT patch cables. With IPC technology, the fine wires of a stranded conductor are not simply clamped between two insulation displacement connectors (IDC) as with conventional technologies, but are penetrated in a defined manner at three spatially offset points. This pioneering technology offers outstanding, long-term stable contacting and additional safety under tensile loads that cannot always be avoided in practice.

Comprehensive testing far beyond the trade show status of the standard
For the tests, igus® and Telegärtner agreed on a clearly defined division of tasks. The igus®laboratory specialises in load tests under mechanical movement in real applications. Up to 700 tests run continuously in parallel on an area of 2,750 m². The Telegärtner laboratory is one of the technologically leading measuring and testing laboratories for high-frequency measurements on connectors and preassembled cabling. The centrepiece is the real-time re-embedded measurement set-up developed by Telegärtner, which records the relevant parameters not one after the other but simultaneously in real time and is much more accurate than required by the international IEC 60512 series of standards for measurement technology. Telegärtner measurement adapters are therefore often used by leading independent measurement laboratories.

Both companies pioneered the testing of highly flexible industrial cabling. The current version of the EN 60352 standard only defines measurement specifications for cables with solid, single-wire conductors and flexible, seven-wire stranded wire. There are no measurement specifications for the cables with 19-wire, highly flexible stranded conductors required in automation technology. The trend-setting combination of such category 6 and 6A stranded wire and innovative connectors with IPC technology is a pioneering technology that is ahead of the standardisation status of the trade show.

Practical test procedure
The pre-assembled cables were subjected to the linear movements typical of energy chains with over one million double strokes. The transmission parameters of the cabling systems subjected to this stress were then measured in accordance with the strict Cat.6A specifications up to 500 MHz in accordance with ISO/IEC 11801. Excellent transmission quality was verified for all test specimens. No defects were found either within the cable or in the connection to the connector. Final destructive workpiece tests, in which the connections were moulded with casting resin and ground for microscopic examination, showed a perfect contact pattern: the contact was still complete, the fixation was as firm and reliable as at the beginning and no clearance was detected in the connection chambers of the connector. Based on the results of the tests with linear movements trade show, a torsion test with +/- 180 °/m was also carried out to simulate the typical movement sequences for robot applications. Cables with a different design are required here to fulfil even the most demanding special requirements of robotics.

Result: Ideally suited for Ethernet and Profinet
Overall, the test results show that the combination of MFP8 connectors and chainflex®® -bus cable is particularly suitable for guaranteeing maximum reliability in highly flexible automation technology cable systems and ensuring Ethernet connections even at the highest data rates of up to 10 Gbit/s. Even after several million double strokes, the tested cabling solutions showed no recognisable wear and no impairment of signal transmission. This was also confirmed by other test series. The pre-assembled cables therefore fully comply with the important categories 6 and 6A for Ethernet. Even with the lower requirements of category 5, which play an important role in Profinet applications, chainflex®® cables with MFP8 connectors from Telegärtner offer outstanding reliability.

You can find more interesting applications from a wide range of areas as well as our vector competition here:

Application examples for chainflex® cable

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