Unsupported energy chain for Kao Ming's large machining centre

• What was needed: guidelok System, E4.80-energy chain, chainflex®-cable
• Requirements: high number of cables and hoses that need to be guided, long travel distances
• Industry: machine tool manufacturing
• Success for the customer: fast and low vibration energy and signal supply for the best machining results of the machine, simple design reduces maintenance requirements, greatly reduced machine downtimes and maintenance intervals

Kao Ming, based in Feng Yuan City, Taiwan, is a pioneer in Asia in the development and manufacture of portal milling machines for heavy-duty machining. The company places the highest demands on the quality of its products. Great importance is therefore attached to the extremely stable basic construction of the machines. This is also the case with the KMC-G machine series, which is one of the company's largest portal machining centres and is mainly used for machining workpieces in the aerospace and machine tool industries. Box guideways on the system's traversing axes ensure maximum rigidity and damping. While the first G-series systems in the X-axis had a travel of six metres, the current model series now has a travel of 13 metres.
For a customer with additional requirements, a customised machine design was necessary on the part of the manufacturer. The end customer wanted the option of processing at different working angles and not just in a horizontal direction. For this purpose, this machine is equipped with a changing device for the machining spindle so that milling heads with different machining angles can be used. The various spindles increase the number of cables and hoses for energy, media and data that need to be routed from the central control cabinet through the system to the milling unit. The special module design also increases the demands on the energy chain, as the travel distances are longer.

This special design posed a particular challenge for every energy and signal supply system. The customer Kao Ming decided in favour of a guidelok system from igus® for these requirements, which ultimately proved to be the ideal solution for the application. The special design of the support rollers ensures that the upper run of the E4.80 chain used can move smoothly and quickly. In addition, the passive deflection mechanism enables the movement of two opposing chains in the same trough system. Thanks to this design of the guidelok system, the e-chain® can move quickly and, above all, with low vibration. This has a positive effect on the processing result.
The simple design also has the advantage that regular maintenance can be dispensed with. Overall, machine downtimes and maintenance intervals are reduced, as no chips can accumulate between the upper and lower run. The travel of the guidelok can be extended up to 50 metres.
After installing the entire system, Kao Ming is now very satisfied. They have therefore decided to also equip the second system for the same end customer with the guidelok system from igus®.