Germany: Roxtec provides sealing solutions on demand

When developing their new paint and door opener robots, Yaskawa Europe realized they did not only need cable entry seals for bonding, grounding and protection against gas, dust and explosion. They also needed spare capacity for more cables. Therefore, they chose Roxtec seals.

Martin Obermair of Yaskawa Europe in Allershausen, Germany: “Roxtec seals are perfect for us as they make it easy for the next user in the chain to add cables without drilling any holes.”

During the development process, it became obvious to the Yaskawa designers and engineers that it would neither be space nor cost-efficient to use big cable glands in metal plates. It would be too hard for system integrators and end users to drill new holes and add cables if needed. 

“System integrators want sealed robots from us and the ability to install equipment whenever they want. This system integrator, Eisenmann, asked us to present a solution that would allow easy addition of cables. We investigated many cable sealing solutions, but very few of them had all the features that we required, such as being certified for classified explosive areas”, Obermair explains. “We are very happy to see that the seals, the quality and the possibility for bonding and grounding are fully in line with our wishes and requests. Roxtec understands customer needs to 100 percent.”

Sealing solution on demand

Yaskawa selected Roxtec as possible supplier. There was, however, a problem: the standard Roxtec seals would not fit the special opening designed for the formerly used cable gland plate. Meanwhile, time was running – and the day for the very first delivery was rapidly approaching.

Obermair: “We had a competent and quick response from Roxtec promising us a tailor-made solution within two months! The support from M. Lohmann at Roxtec was great.”

Spreading sealing efficiency

Roxtec delivered its customized SFX BG Ex seal to Yaskawa Europe as soon as the certification documents needed were available. The cables used are power cable, encoder cable and air hoses for the robot as well as application cable from the customer side.

The Yaskawa paint robot MOTOMAN MPX3500 and door opener robot MOTOMAN MPO10 will be presented at the Automatica tradeshow in Munich in June – equipped with Roxtec cable entry seals and certification labels demonstrating their high level of performance.

“My overall impression is that the response from Roxtec was fast and very good, we have short times for product development and delivery, so our suppliers must be quick. I sent a sample to my colleagues in Japan, and they will also start using Roxtec now”, Obermair explains.