Extended Reiku jointed tubing system

Reiku has extend­ed its proven joint­ed tub­ing cable pro­tec­tion sys­tem for robot­ics and automa­tion. This means that this effi­cient alter­na­tive to cor­ru­gat­ed con­duits and ener­gy chains is now avail­able in nom­i­nal widths of 48 and 76, where­by the NW 48 joints can be also designed sep­a­ra­bly to improve acces­si­bil­i­ty. New acces­sories avail­able for both sizes such as end-pieces and adapters as well as fix­ing ele­ments make the use of the joint­ed tub­ing sys­tem even more reli­able, flex­i­ble and convenient.
The joint­ed tub­ings, which are pro­duced from low-fric­tion, high­ly impact-resis­tant, oil and grease-resis­tant polyamide, com­bine high life expectan­cy and mobil­i­ty with out­stand­ing pro­tec­tion against mechan­i­cal loads and oth­er rough envi­ron­men­tal influ­ences in indus­tri­al pro­duc­tion. They are built up in a “cater­pil­lar-like” form from indi­vid­ual joint ele­ments clipped togeth­er. Freely rotat­ing against each oth­er, they reli­ably exclude the pos­si­bil­i­ty of tor­sion­al moments in the cable pro­tec­tion. Fur­ther­more, the bend­ing radii of the joint­ed tub­ing are lim­it­ed to a min­i­mum lev­el depen­dent on the nom­i­nal width. Unlike con­ven­tion­al cable ducts, the wear-inten­sive bend­ing of the cables is thus avoid­ed. Because the closed con­struc­tion – with­out any addi­tion­al stiff­en­ing or struts inside – pro­duces sta­ble sta­t­ics, the entire inside diam­e­ter of the tub­ing is freely avail­able with­out restric­tion to accom­mo­date cable strands or hose lines.
Depend­ing on the over­all length of the indi­vid­ual links, the man­u­fac­tur­er is able, to a large extent, to pro­duce lengths indi­vid­u­al­ly adapt­ed to the cus­tomer’s require­ments. For exam­ple, a 1,000 mm joint­ed tub­ing con­sists of 26 main joints of size 48 or 16 main joints of NW 76, where­by con­nec­tion pieces mount­ed on both sides form the respec­tive end-piece. The small­est pos­si­ble dynam­ic bend­ing radii here are 109 mm and 200 mm respec­tive­ly. The option­al sep­a­ra­ble design of the main joints of the NW 48 allows the joint­ed tub­ing to be opened in the assem­bled state, for exam­ple for replac­ing cables, sub­se­quent assem­bly work or reg­u­lar checks on the cables and lines.
Among the many acces­sories avail­able for both sizes are, for exam­ple, adapters that ensure an unprob­lem­at­ic changeover from the cor­ru­gat­ed con­duit to joint­ed tub­ing. With spe­cial pro­tec­tors, cor­ru­gat­ed tub­ing can be quick­ly and reli­ably extend­ed at places sub­ject­ed to a high­er load with the aid of a joint­ed tub­ing. Eas­i­ly mount­ed grip­ping clamps with sup­port jaws offer a flex­i­ble pos­si­bil­i­ty for fix­ing the joint­ed tub­ing. Sep­a­ra­ble joints allow the appli­ca­tion-spe­cif­ic exten­sion of tub­ing sys­tems, also in com­bi­na­tion with closed joints. Fur­ther­more, sep­a­ra­ble con­nec­tors that can be com­bined with dif­fer­ent end-pieces serve to con­nect joint­ed tub­ing quick­ly and eas­i­ly with hous­ings. Spe­cial joint con­nec­tions for robots allow sta­ble, tear-resis­tant, impact-resis­tant assem­bly in the grip­ping clamp, and can, for exam­ple, be com­bined with a cable star as strain relief. For appli­ca­tions sub­ject­ed to par­tic­u­lar­ly high mechan­i­cal stress­es, the com­pa­ny has also devel­oped a met­al con­nec­tion fit­ting with strain relief.
Johann Kasper, who is respon­si­ble for robot cable ducts, says: “Our joint­ed tub­ings have been prov­ing them­selves in prac­tice for more than ten years in appli­ca­tions in which cor­ru­gat­ed tub­ing or link chains reach or exceed their load­ing lim­its. Their main advan­tage is their rotata­bil­i­ty in the lon­gi­tu­di­nal axis, which avoids the relat­ed tor­sion­al moments and stress­es. As a result, and because the pip­ing does not bend, the amount of wear and tear is reduced and the life expectan­cy is extend­ed sig­nif­i­cant­ly. For the user, this means few­er down­times for the pro­duc­tion lines and reduced labour costs for replacement.”