Clean and excellent: igus e-skin receives the Fraunhofer Clean Technology Award

The e-skin: Developed for cleanroom applications, tested under realistic conditions with 6.4 million double bends at 3 m/s in the laboratory (Source: igus GmbH).

The e-skin was awarded the 2nd prize of the Fraunhofer Clean Technology Award "Clean! 2018". Philipp Hagedorn (second from right), product manager for e-chains at igus, accepted the award (Source: igus GmbH).

For the area of energy management in pure productions, igus has developed the e-skin. It supplies plants with data, media, and energy without generating airborne particles through friction that could contaminate the space and violate strict standards. The improved corrugated hose for cleanroom applications received the 2nd prize of the Fraunhofer Cleanliness Technology Award, awarded on February 6, 2018.

The manufacturing of microchips, flat-panel displays, implants, pharmaceutical active ingredients, or micro- and nanoproducts would be unthinkable without a clean, pure, or ultra-clean production environment. Because any contamination directly damages the product and process and costs the manufacturer dearly. For the area of energy management, the motion plastics specialist igus has therefore developed a novel corrugated hose for cleanrooms: the e-skin. It bears the Fraunhofer Tested Device quality seal of ISO Class 1 and has now been awarded the 2nd prize of the Fraunhofer Cleanliness Technology Award "Clean! 2018". Outstanding ideas in cleanliness technology are recognized here, which are not only completely new but also improve the economic efficiency of production processes.

Closed design and abrasion resistance for pure production

The e-skin is made of tribologically optimized, abrasion-resistant plastic. The separable upper and lower shells can be easily assembled into a fully enclosed pipe with high dust and water tightness using a hook-and-loop fastening method. This guarantees both cleanroom suitability and quick filling and maintenance of the lines. The easy-to-assemble e-skin is also extremely lightweight, suitable for small installation spaces — for example, in pick-and-place applications — and, unlike other corrugated hoses, can be used as a free-standing component over short distances due to the rigidity of the material, the rib contour, and a defined direction of movement. The design and material of the e-skin have been tested for cleanroom suitability in igus's in-house test laboratory.