BRETT WALLACE
Festo customers can physically test any electric drive applications in a controlled environment
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.”