How new energy chain was inspired by nature and designed for industry

This week’s video introduces the new E4Q energy chain from igus for unsupported and long travels. The chain links of the e-chain have a pebble-shaped design for weight reduction and a completely new crossbar locking mechanism, which enables the energy chain to be opened by hand, in seconds.

On the upper side of the crossbar there are two recesses through which the locking levers can be pulled open. Once unlocked on both sides, the crossbar can be lifted off. This makes it easy to open and close the chain, even when fitted inside a guide trough, and speeds up assembly by up to 40%. The new crossbar has significantly higher pull-out forces in the locked state compared to similar e-chains in the range.

A further advantage of the E4Q energy chain is that with the optional noise dampeners fitted, it offers very quiet operation. This is achieved by attaching rubber elements to the horizontal stop-dogs, additionally dampening the impact noise of the already very quiet e-chains. These can be retrofitted at any time.