OKI Electric Cable launches new interface cables for robot vision: Enhanced bending and torsion resistance and high-speed transmission performance

OKI Electric Cable (Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture), an OKI Group company, has developed a new product, the "High-Durability CoaXPress 2.0 Cable," to be used as an interface cable for robot vision, which act as the "eyes" of industrial robots. Sales started in March 2024. In addition to the sliding performance, the strength of the previous product, this new cable offers enhanced durability against bending and twisting, as well as high-speed transmission performance, which makes it compatible with industrial robots with repetitive bending and twisting motions. The company aims to achieve sales of over 100 million yen in FY2025.

The previous product, the "CoaXPress Cable Series," has been well received since its launch in 2016 as an interface cable with excellent sliding performance required mainly for machine vision systems such as mounters and inspection equipment. In recent years, robot vision system equipped with cameras that serve as "eyes" have increasingly been adopted in industrial robots allowing them to "see, recognize, and work." In addition to sliding performance of conventional cables, interface cables are now required to have movable durability to withstand bending and twisting motions.

The new "High Durability CoaXPress 2.0 Cable" is available in two models, CXP12-1C-RA and CXP12-4C-RA. The shield construction has been strengthened to accommodate the motions of industrial robots. Both models have achieved high motion durability withstanding 300,000 bending cycles, and CXP12-1C-RA has achieved 300,000 twisting cycles. The cable also conforms to the CoaXPress 2.0 standard, an image transmission method standardized by the Japan Industrial Imaging Association (JIIA). A single cable with a simple coaxial structure supports communication, control, and power supply to the camera. The cable realizes high transmission speeds surpassing conventional Camera Link and USB3 Vision interfaces, with the maximum transmission speed of 12.5 Gbps for the single-lane cable CXP12-1C-RA and 50 Gbps for the four-lane cable CXP12-4C-RA.