Festo now offers PositioningDrives productivity software for designing single axis drive systems. Engineers input application requirements and PositioningDrives details the information necessary to create a Festo component parts list, including electromechanical actuator, motor, drive, cables, and other accessories. Festo provides PositioningDrives as a free download.
The company posted a comprehensive online video tutorial for everyone interested in learning more and applying the software. Festo will demonstrate PositioningDrives daily at 11am and 2pm, March 23-25, at Automate 2015 in Chicago, Festo Booth # 492.
All of the Festo components in a PositioningDrives single axis drive bill of materials have been designed to work together, which promotes operational efficiency, decreased assembly time, and minimized cost. Once the parts list is finalized, it is exported to the Festo Online Shopping Basket for a ready-to-order system. The software also delivers comprehensive documentation about the single axis system to share with internal teams and end users.
User experience
Once application parameters have been entered, the PositioningDrives software identifies single axis system combinations from an extensive, harmonized range of components, including electromechanical linear actuators, motors, gear units, drives, and software. Application details entered into PositioningDrives consist of mounting orientation, load, stroke, and precision, among others. There are also options for specifying the motion profile, including speeds, accelerations, and positioning times.
The engineer can use the software to sort options and narrow down the search for the ideal system. In the design process, combinations of actuator, motor/gear unit, and drive are displayed graphically and the degree of utilization is shown as a bar graph. Clicking on a component’s illustration opens respective documentation.
The program provides detailed system information such as motion profile, dynamic load, product characteristics, and a bill of materials. Complete project documentation and data back-up round out the scope of functions furnished by PositioningDrives.
“Engineers tell us this is a fantastic productivity tool,” said Tom Worsnopp, Product Manager of Servopneumatics and PLCs. “Even if it did not save an incredible amount of time, and it does, they tell us the quality, performance, dependability, and ease of ordering a harmonized motion system is exactly what they want for their machines and their company.”
>> For more information on PositioningDrives productivity software for designing and ordering single axis drive systems, click here
