This collection of design tips will extend the life of cable carriers and the components they protect.

O f all the machine design details to worry about, cable carriers probably don’t top your list. Yet if you care about the reliability and uptime of moving machines, it pays to devote extra engineering attention to cable carriers and the components within them. A well-designed cable carrier will dramatically extend the life of cables and fluid power supply lines—by protecting them from damaging bends, crimping, abrasive wear and crushing.

60*150 mm MT open type nylon flexible both side openable cable chain

Unfortunately, not all cable carriers are well designed. Their internal cavities may be too small for the components they carry. They may too long or short. They may be made from the wrong materials for the job. Or they may lack internal dividers. These poorly-designed carriers can trigger the very same cable and supply line failures they were supposed to prevent, causing expensive machine downtime.

Fortunately, the potential for failures can largely by avoided by following a collection of simple carrier design guidelines developed by our Systems Group. Over the years, our engineers have designed, built and delivered thousands of populated cable carriers. Not only have these carriers contained our own power and signal products but also complimentary products from other suppliers, including air and hydraulic supply lines. These carriers have been implemented in a wide variety of servo and VFD applications, including ones with high flex cycle requirements. Our carriers run day in and day out on a wide variety of packaging, automotive, processing and industrial automation machines.

With so many populated carries under our belts, the design guidelines presented have been field tested and can add thousands of life cycle hours to a typical populated carrier carrier.