Published: 2025-08-13 10:32:37
Highly flexible drag chain cables can exceed the 5 million bending cycle limit through optimizing material selection, improving structural design, refining production processes, and implementing strict quality inspections, as detailed below:
Optimize material selection
Conductor material: Multi-strand ultra-fine oxygen-free copper wires are selected, such as copper wire with a diameter of 0.08-0.1mm, or oxidation-resistant tin-plated copper wire, which is more durable, soft, and has stronger corrosion and oxidation resistance.
Insulation materials: Made of TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) or PUR (polyurethane) and other materials, they have good flexibility and aging resistance, and can withstand frequent bending.
Jacket materials: For high-frequency dynamic scenarios, a PUR jacket is a better choice, offering excellent bend resistance that can reach over 10 million cycles, and high tensile strength, ≥50N/mm².
Improved structural design
Conductor stranding structure: Uses a short-pitch stranding process, with a stranding pitch ≤12 times the conductor diameter, to reduce bending stress concentration. A composite stranding structure can also be used, making the core wires more secure and evenly distributing stress among the copper wires.
Core wire filling and shielding: Use cotton thread, terylene, and other materials for proper filling, maintaining an optimal filling ratio to ensure the cable has sufficient tensile strength while remaining flexible, and eliminating internal friction loss. If shielding is required, a double-layer shielding structure can be used, such as aluminum foil and tinned copper wire braiding, ensuring the shielding layer does not break or peel off when bent.
Inner and outer jackets: The inner jacket uses a special polyurethane material and a full extrusion process to ensure tight contact between the core wires and the inner jacket, reducing friction and displacement during bending. The outer jacket can include a tensile braid layer, such as a Kevlar braid, to enhance the cable's tensile and torsional resistance.
Refined manufacturing process
Untwisting process: Uses a 360° cage twist untwisting technology to simultaneously zero stress in each conductor, completely eliminating internal twist memory, ensuring the cable maintains good performance even after tens of millions of bends.
Winding process: Uses advanced high-speed winding machines to wind cables at higher density and speed, ensuring 100% coverage of the shielding layer, so that the shielding performance remains stable even when the cable is twisted 360°.
Strict quality inspection
Simulation testing: Uses professional testing equipment to simulate various working conditions of the cable in actual use, such as different bending radii, bending cycles, and dragging speeds, accurately measuring the cable's service life and promptly identifying potential problems for improvement.
Sampling inspection: Samples are taken on produced cables for physical performance tests (such as tensile strength and elongation at break), electrical performance tests (such as insulation resistance and voltage resistance tests), and bending life tests to ensure that every batch meets high standards.