Explained
A cable chain is a linked guide that carries cables and hoses along moving machine parts. It keeps the wiring on a fixed path within a fixed bend radius and prevents whipping, kinking and breakage. Other names: energy chain, drag chain, cable carrier and cable track.
The chain is fixed at one end and attached to the moving part at the other. Between those points sits the bend arc, which travels with the motion. On short strokes the upper run is unsupported; on longer strokes it glides on the lower run inside a glide channel. That way the wiring stays put and only the chain moves.
A link consists of two side parts and crossbars that open on the inside or the outside. Separators divide the interior into compartments so power cables, data buses and hoses do not chafe against each other. End connectors join the chain to the machine and the moving part and absorb the tensile force — the cables themselves must never carry that load.
Never fill a compartment beyond roughly 60%: cables must be able to move. The bend radius is at least ten times the diameter of the thickest cable, and twelve to fifteen times for shielded or heavy power cables. Too small a radius is the most common cause of cable failure in practice. Both figures are listed on every item.
Cable chain, energy chain, drag chain, cable carrier and cable track are used interchangeably. German: Energiekette, Schleppkette, Kabelschleppkette or E-Kette; Dutch: kabelrups; French: chaîne porte-câbles; Spanish: cadena portacables or cadena de arrastre.
