Roller energy chain for voestalpine

voestalpine Grobblech GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of voestalpine Stahl GmbH, employs 630 people and processes around 10% of the crude steel produced at the Linz site in Austria into high-quality heavy plate. For one project, the slab deep-drawing furnace had to be equipped with an energy supply system on site. More specifically, the so-called hearth cover car, which travels on the deep furnace with a travel distance of 99 metres, must be supplied with data and electricity. The travelling car permanently travels through all six furnace stations in the plant.
The challenge here was the special environmental conditions in the plant, which place particular demands on all the components used. The slabs are heated in the deep furnaces. When they are pulled out of the furnace, their temperature range is around 1,200 °C. Flames sometimes burst out of the furnaces. The customer also wanted an energy supply system that would ensure largely maintenance-free operation. In addition, there is the requirement for a long service life in the harsh rolling mill environment. If spare parts need to be replaced due to wear, this must be simple. "The energy supply system simply has to function during operation without us having to worry about it in any way," says Markus Scheuchenpflug, project manager of the GTA (electrical) department at voestalpine Grobblech.

The external engineering office "Buma Engineering", which works for voestalpine among others, was responsible for awarding the contract. For the energy and signalling supply, they opted for a pre-assembled energy chain system from igus®, which is marketed under the name readychain®. In this application, the complete chain length is approx. 50,800 mm. It was supplied ready for connection, including all cables and strain reliefs, on a large drum on site Specifically, the 4040CR series is used as a roller energy chain at voestalpine Grobblech GmbH. The fully webbed version proves its worth particularly in tough applications. A double stop-dog system in the area of the link connections guarantees the absorption of high tensile/push forces. The roller energy chain has a number of other advantages. It reduces the drive power to less than 25 % for moving the energy supply system. In this case, the actual drive runs via the hearth cover trolley. Added to this is the smooth operation and constant travelling frequency. The energy supply system has a smooth inner and outer contour - with all the positive effects on the igus ®"chainflex®" cable used. In contrast to conventional energy supply systems, the rolling (sliding) version is predestined for applications with dirt. The four-part link system makes it extremely easy to change spare parts. It can be opened from both the inner and outer radius. No special tools are required; a screwdriver is all that is needed to open the system. This makes it easy to replace or, if necessary, add a new cable.