Cleanroom-compatible energy chains from the e-skin flat series still qualify for the highest cleanroom class even after 1.5 years of continuous use and 60 million double strokes. A test, unprecedented in the industry, led to this result. It was carried out in a cleanroom laboratory set up by motion plastics specialist igus in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA).
Dusting the living room can be annoying. You scarcely have time to enjoy the spotless surfaces before the first specks of dust begin to collect again. Manufacturers of displays and semiconductors have the same problem – but with more serious consequences. Any tiny particle, even one invisible to the naked eye, can damage electronic components. Therefore, the strictest cleanroom class – ISO Class 1 according to DIN 14644-1 – must contain no more than ten 0.1-micrometre (0.0001-millimetre) particles per cubic meter of ambient air. To achieve this level of purity, all suppliers of cleanroom production system components must meet the strictest requirements. To this end, igus has developed the e-skin flat, a flat cable guidance system made of abrasion-optimised high-performance plastic that ensures reliable, particle-free guidance of power and data cables in moving production systems and is thus suitable for ISO Class 1.
Unique test setup: e-chain runs for 1.5 years in a dirty and dusty environment
“The e-skin flat cleanroom energy chain is ideal for robots and other automation systems in electronics production in such areas as semiconductors and display production,” says Andreas Hermey, Development Manager for e-chain systems at igus. “It is so abrasion-resistant that contamination by airborne particles is no longer an issue.”
More information: E-mail: kramanujachar@igus.net, www.igus.in
