FEATURE CABLES & CONNECTORS
PROTECTING EQUIPMENT with organised cable entry seals
Clive Sharp, managing director at Roxtec UK, a company that delivers a broad range of cable and pipe seals for factory and industrial equipment to businesses across the globe, discusses cable seals and their importance in protecting factory and industrial equipment
R
oxtec’s lightweight cable seals are designed to protect equipment
with an organised cable entry seal which can be opened for easy maintenance and equipment upgrades. The openable seal design provides a solution for top or bottom high cable density entries to cabinets in harsh and high temperature environments. Roxtec’s sealing solutions can be used
for all types of cables within power and control and by machine builders in various challenging and demanding applications. Roxtec’s solutions are designed to withstand a plethora of dangers. Its key market sectors include marine, oil and gas, telecoms, construction, power generation, distribution and transmission and the process industries.
CABLE SEALS AND THE FOOD INDUSTRY When designing the spreaders, extruders and ovens for the global baking industry, Haas-Meincke was keen to incorporate a cable sealing solution which could keep dust out and prevent water from entering
and damaging equipment during high pressure hosing. Haas-Meincke developed the machines to ensure high reliability in production and a high level of hygiene. However, its former cable sealing solution, using cable glands, often gave rise to problems due to the accumulation of debris. Roxtec seals now ensure that cable failures are less frequent, which helps avoid unnecessary machine downtime. If a cable should fail, replacement is quick and easy even if the cables are of different sizes and pre-terminated at both ends. Haas-Meincke now consciously designs its products to incorporate Roxtec seals right from the start. A key advantage is that Roxtec can offer a 100pc integrated solution for those machines with stringent requirements for water-tightness and ease of cleaning.
SEALS IN A ROBOTICS PLANT Another recent project requiring a durable and flexible cable seal solution for factory equipment involved Yaskawa Europe’s manufacturing plant in Germany. When developing new paint and door opener robots, Yaskawa Europe realised it did not
Clive Sharp, managing director at Roxtec UK
only need cable entry seals for bonding, grounding and protection against gas, dust and explosion, it also needed spare capacity for more cables. During the development process, it became clear to the Yaskawa designers and engineers that it would neither be space nor cost- efficient to use big cable glands in metal plates. It would be too hard for system integrators and end-users to drill new holes and add cables if needed. In this case the system integrator, Eisenmann, was looking for a solution that would allow easy addition of cables. After investigating many cable sealing solutions, very few had all the features that were required, such as being certified for classified explosive areas.
Yaskawa Europe needed cable entry seals for bonding, grounding and protection against gas, dust and explosions
26 SEPTEMBER 2017 | INSTRUMENTATION
SEALING SOLUTION ON DEMAND Yaskawa selected Roxtec as a possible supplier. There was, however, a challenge: the standard Roxtec seals would not fit the special opening designed for the previously used cable gland plate. Meanwhile, time was running out – and the day for the very first delivery was rapidly approaching. Roxtec delivered a customized SFX BG Ex seal to Yaskawa Europe as soon as the certification documents needed were available. The cables used include power cables, encoder cables and air hoses for the robot as well as an application cable from the customer side. The Yaskawa paint robot MOTOMAN MPX3500 and door opener robot MOTOMAN MPO10 were later presented at the Automatica tradeshow in Munich – equipped with Roxtec cable entry seals and certification labels demonstrating their high level of performance. The solution and response from Roxtec was well received by Yaskawa because it was fast and efficient. This is important due to Yaskawa’s short lead-in times for product development and delivery. The firm further sent samples back to colleagues in Japan, who are now using Roxtec products.
Roxtec
www.roxtec.com
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