Wear-resistant plastic energy chain under high acid load in indoor cranes

• What was needed: energy chain system E4/4 including guide trough
• Requirements: Due to a high hydrogen chloride content in the air of the pre-treatment line of approx. 2 per cent, all components in the system are exposed to a high acid load. A wear-resistant solution was to be found for these conditions.
• Industry: Cranes
• Success for the customer: The chemical-resistant material igumid® EG+ ensures high resistance despite the high hydrogen chloride content. The material also has very low total moisture absorption, which enables increased resistance to aggressive chemicals.

In the past, so-called festooning systems were used in the pre-treatment line of Wiegel's hot-dip galvanising plants. Cable and hose are suspended like a garland and moved with small trolleys. The disadvantage of this technology, however, is that a cable station at the end of the travel path takes up a lot of space and the area of the pre-treatment line cannot be completely sealed off. The rollers of the cable trolleys also sometimes fail after some time, as the C-profiles in which they are guided corrode and become sharp-edged due to the acid load. This causes the rollers to wear quickly.

The project management of the technology department at Wiegel Verwaltung GmbH & Co KG decided in favour of polymer-energy chains from our product portfolio, which offered the customer two main advantages: They ensure a density solution for the material preparation area, which was not previously the case with a festooning system, as well as high wear resistance.
The first energy chain was installed in a Wiegel plant in 2015. The next application followed a year later, where we supplied both the E4/4 series energy chain and the new plastic trough made from the chemical-resistant material igumid® EG+. This ensures high chemical resistance, making the guide trough ideal for use in hot-dip galvanising or fertiliser production, for example. igumid® EG+ is characterised by very low total moisture absorption. This enables increased resistance to aggressive chemicals. With its significantly optimised sliding properties, the material can be used for the guide trough and also for most e-chain® series in a temperature range from 0 °C to +100 °C. As both the e-chain® and the trough in the complete system are made of the chemical-resistant material, they are very good sliding partners.