Centre to test and prove industrial systems before installation
BRETT WALLACE Festo customers can physically test any electric drive applications in a controlled environment
Photo by Duane Daws
TESTBED Festo’s handling and electric drives simulator at its Applications Centre
Photo by Duane Daws
ACCURACY Festo would typically use samples of a clients products when simulating or testing various process or designs
Photo by Duane Daws
The applications centre at multinational industrial automation company Festo’s Isando offices, in Ekurhuleni, will test and prove concepts and systems for clients to ensure that the systems deliver the intended value once installed, says Festo South Africa MD Brett Wallace.
The centre will provide highly accurate test data of components, systems and integration of various systems for clients prior to the deployment of these systems within their facilities.
Further, the centre has an additional benefit of enabling Festo and its clients to test and vali-date new ideas, concepts or innovations and to see whether and how effective changes to existing systems or the introduction of new systems will be.
The applications centre also enables Festo engineers and designers to ensure that all the software integrate seamlessly, including with the industrial systems of other companies, and to provide customers with evidence-proven technologies, says Wallace.
Festo customers are able to physically test any electric drive applications in a controlled environment to confirm details like maximum speed, accuracy and cycle time.
With remote capabilities, such as live video streaming, the applications centre is positioned to meet the needs of customers all across Southern, East and West Africa. The applications centre will use product samples from customers to test applications, he says.
“Our clients cannot afford to make mistakes. Whatever they design and implement needs to work the first time. Our applications centre is there to support them by allowing them to simulate the handling of their actual products with real systems and software,” emphasises Wallace.
“The applications centre enables us to test and validate all aspects of a new system, such as acceleration, forces, cycle times and energy chain management, before deploying the systems or changes into the production environ- ment. This helps to improve our clients’ productivity, profitability and competitiveness while eliminating the need to adjust systems after commissioning,” says Festo South Africa application engineer Gift Thobejane.
Festo customers can get a feel for how new systems will function prior to their deployment in the plant and personally witness the results of live tests, reducing uncertainty. Each customer has different needs, and the centre will help to provide proven results before the client invests in the new systems or enhancements of existing systems, notes Thobejane.
Festo South Africa technical support and appli- cation engineer Thomas Hohls says the appli- cations centre is intended to cater for customers’ needs and the application that they want to run.
“The applications centre will help with systems integration across the entire portfolio of industrial systems, with the advantage that customers do not have to wait until after a system is installed to get answers to questions. We can now locally and quickly test systems to provide clients with peace of mind, and can also use the applications centre to train our and our clients’ employees.”
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation