Chainflex cables without PFAS: safety for people, nature and business

chainflex cables do not use PTFE and PFAS chemicals, guaranteed by the "PFAS-free" seal of approval

Like the other chemicals in the PFAS family, certain polytetrafluoroethylene compounds - PTFE for short - are considered "forever chemicals" and therefore potentially harmful to the environment, humans and animals. The European Union is therefore working to ban the substances. With the "PFAS-free" seal of approval, igus indicates that their own chainflex cables are free of those chemicals and are already providing customers with operational safety in the event of a ban.

PFAS and PTFE, that sounds very chemical and abstract. However, the abbreviations refer to chemical compounds used in many everyday applications. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is better known by the brand name Teflon. Perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds (PFAS) can be found in coated clothing, baking paper, fire extinguishers, makeup, as well as in a number of plastics. Because PFAS are difficult to degrade in the environment and are long-lived, the European Union is currently pushing for a restriction or even a ban on more than 10,000 PFAS compounds. To guard against a ban at an early stage, industrial companies are increasingly demanding that the plastics supplied to them be PFAS-free. igus is now guaranteeing exactly that with the "PFAS-free" label for its chainflex cables.

95% of the chainflex cables is PFAS-free

The Cologne-based plastics specialist already no longer uses the chemicals in question in 95% of its cables, giving its customers planning security even in the event of an EU-wide ban. All chainflex cables designated as "PFAS-free" are made of materials such as insulation, sheath, tapes, etc. that are free of fluorine compounds. This does not include possible impurities or measured value limits that cannot be completely excluded by external influences, for example. This means that igus already meets international requirements, since in some countries the export of PFAS is already restricted and subject to notification or authorization. "With the 'PFAS-free' label, we offer our customers security and continue to strongly promote igus' sustainability claim by working without harmful compounds," explains Sebastiaan Koelewijn, Product Manager chainflex cables at igus B.V.

More than 1350 cables in the range

The chainflex cables are specially developed for use in moving applications and are used in many systems worldwide. In addition to safe energy supply in cable tracks, they are also used in cranes, machine tools and robotics. The range has now grown to more than 1,350 cables that are part of a wide range of cable types: igus offers control power, bus, data, motor, fiber optic cables and more. They are characterized by their long service life and robustness - a fact that the company owes in part to its own test laboratory. In an area of 3,800 square meters at its headquarters in Cologne, igus' experts perform more than two billion test cycles a year. The expertise gained from the tests is also why the company decided to offer a 36-month warranty on chainflex cables more than a decade ago. Based on the positive experience, igus last year extended the warranty period from three to four years. "This way we also increase planning and operational reliability when purchasing our cables, even beyond the PFAS issue," explains Koelewijn.