OKI Electric Cable, the OKI Group’s cable business company, has developed a new product called the High-Durability CoaXPress 2.0 Cable for use as an interface cable for robot vision of industrial robots. It features the same sliding performance, a strength of the conventional product. Additionally, this new product offers enhanced movement durability against bending and twisting ^{(Note 1)}. Thus, it supports industrial robots, which repeat bending and twisting motions. Also, it offers high-speed transmission performance. Sales started in March 2024, with a sales target of over 100 million yen for fiscal 2025.

Evolving Demand for Robot Vision

Since its launch in 2016, the company’s CoaXPress Cable Series has gained praise from many customers as interface cables with outstanding sliding performance. Mainly, this is essential for machine vision systems used largely in mounters and inspection equipment. Recently, robot vision has increasingly been adopted in industrial robots by equipping them with cameras that function as their “eyes”. Specifically, they perform tasks requiring the ability to see and recognize objects. Accordingly, this led to demand for interface cables with movement durability to withstand bending and twisting motions. Also, interface cables with the same sliding performance as before are sought.

According to Hideo Yamaguchi, President of OKI Electric Cable, “The new High-Durability CoaXPress 2.0 Cable is available in two types, CXP12-1C-RA and CXP12-4C-RA. (It was) improved to better accommodate the motions of industrial robots. Thus, the shield configuration has been enhanced to achieve high movement durability to withstand 300,000 times of bending (for both types) and 300,000 times of twisting (for CXP12-1C-RA).” Also, the product conforms to the CoaXPress 2.0 standard stipulated by the Japan Industrial Imaging Association (JIIA).”

Specifically, a single cable with a simple coaxial configuration realizes high-speed transmission surpassing the conventional Camera Link and USB3 Vision standards. At the same time, it supports communication with, control of, and power supply for the camera. Mainly, the maximum transmission speeds are 12.5Gbps for the CXP12-1C-RA supporting a single lane ^{(Note 2)} and 50Gbps for the CXP12-4C-RA supporting four lanes.

OKI Electric Cable will continue to be actively involved in the development of interface cables to support advancements in industrial robots.

Explanation of terms:

^*1: Sliding, bending, twisting

Sliding: sliding motion in a U shape (housed inside cable carrier)

Bending: bending motion at the same location

Twisting: twisting motion at the same location

^*2: Lane – Refers to a single consolidated data transmission path. In the case of the CoaXPress standard, one lane is composed of a single coaxial cable (core).

-01 April 2024-