With the introduction of its chainflex Guarantee Club, igus claims to be 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.
Justin Leonard, a director at igus, says: "We guarantee durability and functional safety of our cables to give customers planning security. 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:
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.
Justin Leonard adds: "We are able to make guarantee commitments because of our extensive testing competence. Our test machines carry out more than 2billion strokes and 1.4million 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 1750 square metres, and has 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 -40degC) 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.
igus believes that the chainflex Guarantee Club offers advantages to machine builders in terms of peace of mind as well as directly, and they can also use their membership as a way to differentiate themselves when preparing proposals for new projects because the guarantee will be of benefit to end users too.
Above all, igus says it is the only supplier to offer a lifetime calculation online tool for its cables - where users can find out the exact lifetime of the respective cable. In addition to the functional safety and lifetime of chainflex cables and systems, igus also guarantees 'soft factors' such as fast delivery of components and systems worldwide.
For more information about the igus chainflex Guarantee Club, go to www.igus.co.uk/chainflexGC.