Festo, one of the world’s leading manufacturing and processing automation suppliers, has opened its first North American Festo Experience Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. With the ever-increasing linkages between making things and controlling processes through cloud computing and Big Data, the company said Silicon Valley was the optimum site for its newest experience center.
The 5,000 square-foot Festo Experience Center, Santa Clara, features a demonstration hall where augmented reality devices allow visitors to virtually experience manufacturing and processing systems utilized in such industries as semiconductors and electronics, solar and flat panel, assembly and test, medical technology, laboratory automation, food & packaging and process automation. Rotating exhibits showcase active and static displays of the latest automated manufacturing and processing solutions. Plans call for demonstrations of:
· Modular and reconfigurable systems conforming to the concepts of Industry 4.0 – the fourth industrial revolution
· Cyber-physical devices that change functionality based on downloadable apps
· Predictive analytics relying on smart-sensors, Big Data concepts, and connectivity to the cloud to alert teams to system failures before failures occur
· Cloud-based dashboards and data analytics facilitating optimum overall equipment/process effectiveness
· Solutions for optimum energy efficiency in manufacturing and processing
· Frictionless transport through high temperature superconductors
· Online productivity tools for bringing products and systems to market faster and with less engineering overhead.
The Experience Center also features a laboratory for focused customer solutions and training and meeting areas.
“From the market penetration perspective, the Festo Experience Center, Santa Clara, will bring our people closer to existing customers in the semiconductor, life sciences, and other industries and open the door to developing new strategic relationships,” said Richard J. Huss, President of Festo US. “From a solutions development perspective, Festo teams will be enriched by being in the heart of one of the most dynamic innovation incubators in the world. All of this energy will be put toward helping customers make things and control processes better, faster, and with greater flexibly by linking automation technology with Big Data and cloud computing.”
Festo is a leading manufacturer of pneumatic and electromechanical systems, components, and controls for process and industrial automation.Other Festo Experience Centers are in Delft, The Netherlands; Bangalore, India; and Shanghai, China.
In North America for more than 40 years, Festo Corporation has continuously elevated the state of manufacturing with innovations and optimized motion control solutions that deliver higher performing, more profitable automated manufacturing and processing equipment.
