After six months they were finished

Plastic e-chains® replace steel versions

Kronopol in the Polish town of Zary, which belongs to the Swiss Krono Group, is one of the biggest producers of chip boards and wood materials in the world. As a single company, all three types of wood boards (chip boards, OSB and MDF) are made at one location. Annual board production is 1.3 million m³, with exports to over 40 countries.

1200 employees work on the factory premises that cover around 55 hectares. At first, three Siempelkamp wood processing machines in the factory were fitted with energy supply systems made of steel. “These energy supply systems only lasted six months, however,” reports Grzegorz Szer, head of the electrical department at Kronopol. “After that I had to keep replacing them.” ”
The heavy steel chains were finally replaced by unsupported plastic e-chains® from igus®. “Despite tough environmental conditions, the solution with plastic has already lasted 24 months without a single failure. At this point in time that already means a four times longer service life for us. ” Grzegorz Szer says giving a detailed account of the equipment's service lives. To keep a check on this, he also wrote the installation dates in white on the e-chains®.

High unsupported cable loads

The wood processing machines are equipped with plastic e-chains® from the igus® “E4/4” system, Series 5050. These e-chains® are particularly suitable with high loads, long distances and in very dirty or damp surroundings. The sides of the e-chain® are connected with each other by a patented key and slot joint (so-called “rear grip”). This enormously increases the stability both in the traction and thrust direction, and when high lateral acceleration forces or torsion act on the e-chain®. igus® supplied the “E4/4 5050” with center axis. Due to the high cable loads, Kronopol was able to increase the unsupported length of the e-chain® even further.

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