Flexible Tray Cable & Hygienic Cord Grips for Breweries

Raise a Glass to LAPP Cables: From tray-rated continuous flex cables to hygienic cable glands, LAPP provided a complete cabling solution for western Canada’s largest brewery.

The food and beverage industry has some of the toughest hygiene requirements – putting your cables and connectors to the ultimate test.

In particular, these applications require durable cables that provide the highest level of mechanical performance along with chemical protection to withstand harsh cleaning agents.

At the same time, they must be flexible for reliable, long-term use in cable trays, which offer a hygienic way to manage cables compared to conduit. LAPP offers a wide variety of cables and connectors that meet these demands – and more.

In fact, thanks to their durability, flexibility, tray rating, and CSA and UL approvals, our cable products recently played an important role in the building of one brewing company’s newest facility in western Canada.

LAPP Supplies the Right Cable Solutions for an Industrial Environment

A major North American brewing company recently constructed a new, 400,000-square-foot facility. Slated to open later this year, it will be the largest brewery in western Canada.

For over a year, the LAPP Canada team worked with Texcan – one of Canada’s largest wire and cable distributors – as well as customer engineers to select and install the best cabling solutions for this industrial environment.

“An important part of this process was making sure our products had the right approvals for the Canadian market,” says Christina Cameron-Hayes, district sales manager for Lapp Canada.

In particular, all cables and connectors required Canadian Standards Association (CSA) approval – indicating they have met the proper certification requirements for electrical cables.

LAPP supplied market leading cables with CSA and UL approvals. LAPP products including ÖLFLEX® VFD Slim, ÖLFLEX® Tray II, ETHERLINE® and UNITRONIC® cables, and SKINTOP® connectors met the distinct needs of the particular applications.

Flexible Tray-Rated Cables

LAPP ÖLFLEX® power and control cables are TC rated for use in cable trays – eliminating the need for conduit, saving material and labor costs.

This rating, coupled with their flexibility, made them a logical choice for the brewery and its extensive cable tray network.

The ÖLFLEX® Tray II cable, for example, features a pressure-extruded, thermoplastic jacket and fine copper stranding for maximum flexibility – achieving a minimum bend radius of six times its cable diameter.

The brewing company also selected the ÖLFLEX® VFD SLIM, a reduced diameter shielded motor cable for variable frequency drives (VFD). This cable is designed with the LAPP Surge Guard insulation system, which includes a semi-conductive layer that withstands nonlinear power distortions.

This thin, tray-rated cable required much less tray space than comparable cable. It is highly flexible and features a minimum bend radius of 7.5 times its cable diameter. In addition, it is rated up to several million bending cycles in continuous flex applications.

The brewery required cabling that could handle wash-down. LAPP cables feature chemical-resistant jackets made from specially formulated compounds, providing reliable chemical resistance during the rigorous cleaning process.

Data Cable Solutions

As automation continues to play a greater role in food and beverage production, there is a growing need for data cables that can transmit more data than ever before.

This trend extends to brewing operations, which increasingly rely on data from Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies to more precisely monitor and regulate the beer-making process.

Because its process was largely automated, the brewery selected several data cables from our UNITRONIC® and ETHERLINE ® families, which are known for providing high data rates in demanding environments.

Available from CAT.5 to CAT.7, our ETHERLINE® Industrial Ethernet cables provide flexibility and fast response times, while our UNITRONIC® cables enable reliable data transmission for popular fieldbus systems.

Brewed for Success

Thanks to their flexibility, durability, and both CSA and UL approvals, LAPP cables and connectors met the demands of the new Canadian brewing facility.

Beyond this case example, our ÖLFLEX®, ETHERLINE®, UNITRONIC®, and SKINTOP® products combine flexibility with strong chemical, thermal, and mechanical resistance – enabling them to safely operate in demanding food and beverage environments.

An engineer at Texcan said, “LAPP’s excellent customer service and willingness to adapt to changing requirements resulted in a smooth customer experience on our latest project together. From cable inventory to in-stock solutions, LAPP was always available to help provide a solution. Any hiccup was quickly resolved with a solution. We look forward to working with LAPP again in the future.”

Download the case study in pdf format: "Raise a Glass to LAPP Cables". If you have a similar application to this story, please contact us and we can tell you more about our tray-rated cables and hygienic cord grips.