Flexible cables, or 'continuous-flex' cables, are cables specially designed to cope with the tight bending radii and physical stress associated with moving applications, such as inside cable carriers.
Due to increasing demands within the field of automation technology in the 1980s, such as increasing loads, moving cables guided inside cable carriers often failed, although the cable carriers themselves did not. In extreme cases, failures caused by "corkscrews" and core ruptures brought entire production lines to a standstill, with high costs incurred as a result.
A higher level of flexibility means the service life of a cable inside a cable carrier can be greatly extended. A normal cable would typically manage 50,000 cycles, but a dynamic cable can complete between 1 and 3 million cycles.
Flexible power cables are used for portable devices, mobile tools and machinery.