Whether goods are large or small, heavy or light, sturdy or fragile, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), integrators, and end users require dynamic and reliable ways to move those goods. Festo, a leading automation supplier, offers world-class electric and pneumatic automation solutions for Intralogistics—the art of optimizing, integrating, automating, and managing the logistical flow of information and material goods within the walls of a fulfillment or distribution center.
In addition to reliable components and ready-to-install systems, Festo also offers productivity tools, global support, and custom solutions. Partnering with Festo ensures interoperability of components and assists in bringing OEMs and integrator solutions to the market faster, with less engineering overhead. OEMs and integrators become more productive with Festo.
Electric automation
Festo offers the world’s most complete electric automation product range. Standardizing on reliable and interoperable Festo electric automation components not only provides design symmetry, but it also streamlines design and acquisition, lowers inventory, and ensures global technical support. Key Intralogistics components include EMMT series servo motors for controllability and path accuracy in positioning applications. The EMMT’s space-saving single-cable solution significantly reduces installation effort.
EGC series axes are ideal for linear gantries and cantilevered axes. Linear actuators in the ELGA family deliver speed, acceleration, and accuracy in the most demanding applications. CMMT, a compact servo drive series, offers precise force and speed. Auto-tuning supports easy commissioning and automatically optimizes control behavior of rotary and linear motion.
Electrics with the simplicity of pneumatics
The Festo Simplified Motion Series (SMS) represents an engineering breakthrough that achieves the simplicity of pneumatics with the benefits of electric automation. SMS axes offer an alternative to more expensive and complex traditional servo motion. SMS takes proven ball screw axes, toothed belt axes, mini slides, electric cylinders, piston rod, and rotary actuators and integrates them with an onboard servo drive. Users commission two-position functionality via onboard push buttons with no additional software needed. When controlled with IO-Link, which is a standard feature of SMS axes, positioning along the axis length is infinitely variable.
Core pneumatics components are always in stock
The company offers innovative and high-quality pneumatic solutions from servo pneumatics to the world’s first intelligent valve terminal, the VTEM, to the industry leading DFSP stopper cylinder. Festo pneumatic components include air preparation, tubing, flow control valves, high flow valves, valve terminals, sensors, mini slides, guided drives, direct interchangeability ANSI NFPA cylinders, and metric and imperial round and compact cylinders.
Festo’s core range of components meets most application needs and is guaranteed to be in stock for quick shipping. The availability of core components lowers supply chain risk. Festo has taken its core products concept to a higher level with the new Festo Pneumatic Essentials program. Festo Pneumatic Essential is a one-stop-shop for the 16 most applied pneumatic components. These components feature innovative compact design for today’s smaller footprint machines and competitive prices.
AI for higher uptime, quality, and energy efficiency
The Festo Automation Experience (AX) is a new artificial intelligence platform for predictive maintenance, predictive quality, and energy optimization. Using advanced analytics, Festo AX maps data to learn a component, machine, product, or energy system’s healthy state. Festo AX provides early warning, actionable information to correct anomalies when data begins trending out of normal.
Seamless Connectivity: Direct Integration into Host Systems
Festo servo drives, integrated drives, remote I/O systems, and valve terminals are integrated directly and seamlessly into both electric and pneumatic automation systems. OEMs and integrators combined Festo electrics and pneumatics into larger environments using Ethernet-based protocols, such as EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, PROFINET, and Modbus. Festo function blocks simplify integration with Rockwell, Beckhoff, Siemens, Omron, and others.
Festo emphasizes connectivity to Ethernet-based protocols through IO-Link. Its most advanced remote I/O solutions, including CPX-E and CPX-AP-I with their IO-Link masters, enable fast connection to host PLCs – connection of the widest possible range of automation components from Festo and third-party suppliers.
CPX-AP-I, a new generation decentralized I/O, connects valve terminals and digital and analog I/O to the integrated system. CPX-AP-I can accommodate over 80 digital and analog input blocks, valve manifolds, and IO-Link master modules per system, with cable lengths up to 50 meters (164 feet) between modules. Because of the extended distances available between modules, CPX-AP-I is ideal for Intralogistics systems, where moving valves closer to actuators is essential for reducing cycle time.
Productivity tools
Using Festo online engineering productivity tools, such as Handling Guide Online, for configuration and selection, engineers can quickly and easily define mechatronic 1D, 2D or 3D kinematics. They can also select the matching motor and servo drive or valve terminals, plus the remote I/O system, and be assured of component interoperability. These tools reduce design time from hours to minutes and ensure interoperability of components.
Learning
Festo Didactic—the educational arm of Festo—takes lifelong learning and mechatronic technical training to a new level. Festo Didactic provides lab-based equipment that replicates real world automation to two-year educational institutions and audits and trains at customer sites. The Festo Learning Experience (Festo LX) is a new online portal to make it easier to create individual learning experiences for personnel.
Electrics, pneumatics, seamless connectivity, productivity tools, AI, and training taken together make Festo the Intralogistics partner that boosts productivity.
