Automation and control 
 solutions company Festo
 has invested in additional 
equipment and machinery that enable it to assemble rodless cylinders locally, says Festo MD Richard Teagle.

He explains that the rodless cylinder is made up of different metals and the machine has to use advanced cutting techniques to achieve the correct tolerances
and accuracies to cut through different metals.

Teagle says that interest in Festo’s local production of cylin-
ders and rodless cylinders is 
ongoing and this can possibly be attributed to customers focusing on repair and maintenance activity, rather than buying new equipment. 


Further, the company has 
developed a number of new products. He says that Festo is the innovator of the valve-terminal concept and this has progressively evolved over the years. This year, the company has integrated 
more modules into the concept to enable it to control electrics, as well as pneumatics. He says that the company is finding that customers are starting to combine both functionalities.

Festo product manager Ernst Smith explains how the electrics meet the pneumatics on one valve terminal. The electronic side meets the valve side through a pneumatics interface and the two sides are combined in one component and matched to the customer’s applications. He says that up to 512 inputs and outputs can be controlled in a single unit containing a programmable logic controller (PLC). These can also be networked with other terminals, which makes them enormously powerful.

The valve terminals also 
include other elements, such as pressure sensing and proportional control, and users can now control servo pneumatics from the valve terminals. The diagnostics have been advanced to communicate with Festo built-in PLCs or other PLCs through industrial networks.

Further, the Festo CPX control terminal has more than one-million combinations of modules, which is one of the reasons that the company has a facility to 
assemble valve terminals locally.

The Festo CPX is modular with different functions, such as pneumatics control valves and other devices slotting into them to form one unit. Despite the economic conditions, the company is currently selling more units than it did last year. 

Smith says that a fourth size has been added to Festo’s VTSA range, which includes a different valve type that also integrates electronics and pneumatics. The new size can control about 3 000 ℓ/m of air. The vertical stacking component is distinctive to the company and, instead of having a valve on a subbase, it can incorporate additional air supply shut-off plates to ensure that air pressure remains in the system if the pressure is shut down for one valve during exchange. 


“There is flow control and pressure regulation for each port and the terminal is built to customer specifications,” says Smith.

Teagle says that a trend in the industry is that customers are using more of the 
diagnostic capabilities of equipment to focus on carrying out maintenance and repair of equipment to maintain productivity. Many customers cannot afford any down time, which makes the diagnostic role of equipment more important to ensure that problems are detected early. 


Smith adds that if there are 120 valve terminals and one fails, a user needs to be able to see which terminal has failed to limit down time. 


In addition, Festo continues to see active demand for its local supply of systems. He says that, while business has been affected by the economic downturn, there is still 
demand and customers are focusing on their core business and asking the company to 
assemble the systems for them.

Festo has also introduced an online shop, which is a first in South Africa. It is a powerful system that not only enables customers to buy equipment online, but also allows them to use a selection of engineering tools.

The online shop includes a digital catalogue, design software and computer-aided design drawing, and makes it convenient for the customer to load bills of material, which is a list of the raw materials, subassemblies, intermediate assemblies, subcomponents, components, parts and the quantities of each needed to manufacture a final product and view the history of previous purchases. Teagle says that this initiative is still new and is proving to be quite popular. 


The company supplies rodless cylinders and valve terminals to most industry sectors, 
including automotive assembly, automotive part manufacturing, packaging and breweries.

Teagle says that, despite economic conditions, there have still been technological 
advances. The company is installing systems that involve sophisticated servomechanisms and detection, including visual detection.

“Technology development and the use of technology is continuing and, interestingly, the company has some nice projects in the 
automotive industry, even though this industry is struggling,” says Teagle.

He explains that some of Festo’s automotive customers are doing well, as they surpass international standards and their exports are expanding, despite the fact that automotive production is decreasing.

Meanwhile, the company is part of the Bionic Learning Network, which uses concepts that occur in nature and learns from these to develop new technologies.

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