Compact cable guidance in innovative impregnation system for electric motors

Profile

• What was needed: Plastic energy chain E4.1 (series E4.80) with chainflex motor cables, designed as Reverse Bend Radius rotating energy supply, supplied as pre-assembled and ready-to-install readychain
• Requirements: The plant was built compactly and requires a space-saving energy supply that allows a 180° pivoting. It must reliably keep up with the high machine output in continuous operation.
• Industry: Automotive industry
• Success for the customer: Also with the support of the E4.80 energy chain and chainflex cables, a 45% more compact design was implemented with up to 25% more production units.

This line for impregnating electric motors achieves a 25% higher number of production pieces with a 45% more compact design.

Problem

This innovative and newly patented system for impregnation from VAF GmbH is intended to set new standards. It is used in the automotive industry in the mass production of electric motors and is used to insulate electric motors to increase their durability and performance. It has been designed for the application of high-quality insulation especially in the field of high-voltage drives. The stators of the electric motors are treated in the machine based on the hot dip impregnation process. In this process, the stator windings are heated via current heat, which requires up to 1,000 amperes per phase. The energy supply for supplying the current heat should allow a pivoting movement of 180°. Since the machine is to take up as little space as possible in the customer's production halls, the energy supply also had to meet particularly tight space requirements. And both the cables and the cable guidance had to be for reliable continuous operation and guarantee a high degree of planning security. Since OEMs process quantities of around 1,000 to 2,000 electric motors per day and per product, a breakdown would be very costly.

Solution

The innovative concept was implemented using an E4.1 energy chain (E4.80 series) and chainflex motor cables running in it. The plastic energy chain is highly rigid and resilient, allowing it to perform reliably over the long term even in hot environments, high aerosol content in the air and continuous operation. Equally important was the small space requirement. Therefore the cable guidance was designed as RBR chain, that is an energy chain with reverse bend radius. It rotates in a compact rotary module and allows the required rotation of 180°. All cables, including the energy chain, were supplied as a pre-assembled complete system - a so-called readychain energy supply - ready for installation. This saves installation time and costs. The energy supply system has thus become an important part of the plant's new concept, which envisages a particularly efficient system with higher output from a smaller space requirement, lower energy requirements and reduced air consumption. And this has also been achieved: the number of production pieces could be increased by up to 25% compared to comparable machines, with a 45% more compact design and 80% less air consumption.