Mr. Rössel, Igus is the first manufacturer in the world to receive UL-AWM certification from the US organization Underwriters Laboratories for TPE cables that do not use fire-retardant halogens as additives. What is special about this?
Until now, when it came to fire protection, flame retardancy was the key factor in obtaining UL certification for cables. Approval was therefore only granted to products that were treated with flame retardants - for example with chlorine, fluorine or bromine. These additives increase the flame retardancy. However, the fact that the flame retardants generally change the chemical structure of the sheathing considerably and thus massively reduce its mechanical load-bearing capacity has not been taken into account to date. Due to the fire-retardant additives, cables are therefore more likely to break when subjected to stresses in the energy chain and are more likely to cause fires themselves.

So your approach is different?
Yes, we were able to convince the UL experts that our halogen-free TPE jacket compounds reliably prevent premature ageing fractures of the outer jackets in dynamic applications in energy chains by up to a factor of 10 compared to the same materials with flame retardants. This means that if the sheath does not break, the cable cannot cause a fire because there is no reduction in the cross-section of the cores due to the absence of sheath breakage. We therefore concentrate less on preventing the spread of a fire, but start much earlier and instead prevent the cable itself from starting a fire. When you consider that, according to the US National Fire Protection Association, machine fires are the fourth most common cause of fire in industrial environments in the USA - closely followed by fires caused by electrical sources - then this is a major contribution to increasing machine safety. An argument that ultimately convinced UL.

And what are the specific advantages of this?
The halogen-free TPE cables with AWM approval offer the following advantages: Firstly, genuine halogen-free cables are important for the European market. Secondly, we offer UL-AWM approval, which in turn is of particular interest to the North American market. Thirdly, we guarantee a 25 % longer service life than comparable UL types. And fourthly, the variety of types is reduced as one cable can be used for all markets.
Customers can choose from 1044 'Chainflex' cables with UL approval. With the new certification, more than 200 halogen-free TPE cables with new UL-AWM approvals have been added, meaning that we can now offer an almost complete UL-certified range for use in the energy chain. Customers will also benefit from this when building machines for the North American market, where UL certification of individual components is the norm.