At the Hannover Messe trade fair, Festo is showcasing three new Future Concepts for automation with superconductor

Superconductors are materials which below a certain temperature can store the field of a permanent magnet at a predefined distance. This effect enables objects to be held in position and manoeuvred without contact. The levitation gap remains stable even beyond walls. Thanks to their restoring forces the superconductive magnetic bearing components autonomously return to their memorized position even when one of them is temporarily removed – entirely without external control engineering

“The special characteristics of superconductors open up great potential for them wherever contact-free storage or handling is required. Automation can thus make inroads into areas of application that until now have been regarded as not or only hardly accessible to automation,” said Georg Berner, Head of Strategic Corporate Development, Group Holding Festo and Project Coordinator for the SupraMotion concepts. “We have now developed a total of 15 different concepts for four key areas of automation: transportation in any spatial orientation, transferring suspended objects between systems, manoeuvring objects at a distance, and exchanging suspended objects and setting them in motion. We are currently working together with customers on launching some initial pilot projects.”

At the Hannover Messe 2017 Festo will be presenting three new possible applications of SupraMotion:

SupraDrive: dynamic linear motion
The SupraDrive exhibit shows how a suspended transport sledge can operate highly dynamically and be precisely positioned. Three cryostats with superconductors mounted on each side of the course enable the sledge to hover a few millimetres above the surface. The movement and positioning are effected by the drive unit from the Multi-Carrier System of Festo, which is installed between the cryostats.

In addition to smooth acceleration and almost wear-free, dynamic movement, this concept has the advantage that all drive components can be enclosed in a casing. This greatly facilitates cleaning, without interruption to the transport process. Since the sledge is in levitation, it cannot be obstructed or soiled by dirt on the surface of the system. This makes for safe operation and a hygienic working environment. Furthermore, the sledge itself moves silently. The concept can be used in areas where components must be cleaned frequently or during operation, for example in laboratory automation, in medical engineering, or in the food, pharmaceutical and packaging industries.

SupraLoop: a combination of various transport systems
The combination of different transport systems with superconductor technology is demonstrated by the SupraLoop exhibit, which comprises three individual transport systems operating on a circuit: a classic conveyor belt, the Multi-Carrier System from Festo and Siemens, and a SupraMotion system.

Several carriers are transported by SupraLoop. Their magnetised undersides serve both for the magnetic coupling to the contactless drive unit of the Multi-Carrier System and for the levitation effect of the SupraMotion system. By means of a set of points, a carrier can be transferred from the conveyor belt to the cryostats with superconductors and then be coupled to them and transported in suspension – even beyond partitions and walls. A possible application would be to remove individual transport sledges from a process, in order to transfer them to a clean room without contact, or to treat objects carried by them with gases or liquids within an enclosed space.

SupraShaker: a suspended vibration system with tilting option
With SupraShaker, a plate is suspended above a cryostat with superconductors. An eccentric electric motor sets it in vibration via a magnetic coupling. Tilting in any desired direction is also possible thanks to transfer of a magnetic field. The levitation gap between the plate and the automation system ensures mechanical separation between the tool and the machine and prevents the vibrations from being transferred to the overall system. Shaking processes, as used with vibration conveyors, could be carried out much more quietly and efficiently with this type of apparatus. The plate can be very easily exchanged or cleaned; this would be an advantage especially in dusty environments.

All three exhibits are controlled by the CPX automation platform, which includes an OPC-UA interface.

The family enterprise Festo follows a hybrid strategy

The globalised markets are placing two key requirements on the manufacturing companies: greater speed in all entrepreneurial processes on the one hand, and a broader range of individual options for the end consumer on the other. Digitalisation offers the necessary key technologies to meet these requirements. Information and communication technologies are merging with classical industrial mechanics to yield cyber-physical systems. Product development and production processes must undergo significant changes

The consumers’ needs for individual design of their products is currently giving rise to entirely new product worlds. Digitalisation is opening up interactive spaces for encounter between customers and manufacturers. The high speed of software development is a driving force in hardware development for machinery and plant construction. In parallel with this, cost-efficiently manufactured and rapidly available mass-produced goods are needed to cater to the quickly growing world population. The automotive producers must find ways of fulfilling both of these requirements. Dealing with this complexity and the increased speed of developments are a great challenge.

Dr. Ansgar Kriwet, Member of the Management Board Sales at Festo AG & Co. KG, commented at the Preview to the Hannover Messe trade fair: “We have very carefully examined and analysed our standing as a leading supplier of automation solutions for factory and process automation. We must on the one hand further develop our existing structures, products and processes, but on the other hand we also need completely new technologies, products and solutions.”

Digitalisation is a mammoth task
Supplying the steadily growing world population with the necessary goods can only be ensured by a highly automated production world. The needs of the consumers in the global markets differ very strongly in accordance with their state of development. The markets require constantly increasing speed. Dr. Kriwet: “Digitalisation will accelerate processes within Festo, so that we can help our customers more rapidly. Digitally extended products from Festo accelerate our customers’ processes – from the machinery design process right down to service.”

Besides the mass production of goods, a trend has developed towards more and more individually adaptable products, which places heavy demands on the flexibility of production environments. The end consumers want to design and configure products for themselves – beginning with the car, through wearables such as watches or glasses, and up to the personalised dispensing of medicines and to self-designed pasta. This is all made possible by digitalisation.

The family enterprise Festo, with over 18,000 employees and around 300,000 customers worldwide and an overall range of more than 33,000 products, is advancing its own transformation process in two directions of impact:

Evolution of the standard products
The core product range for high-quantity series production is still important. Success can only be achieved together with the customers. Dr. Kriwet said in this regard, “Reduced manufacturing costs and the preservation of resources are innovations that generate lasting added value.” Festo is therefore focusing its innovative power firstly on the development of new products for the more rapid, simplified manufacture of bulk goods; secondly, Festo is advancing digital penetration within the company in order to benefit from the advantages of Industry 4.0.

For Festo, evolution also means using investments in the infrastructure to secure lasting added value in a high-wage country such as Germany. The company has established one of the world’s most modern production lines at the Technology Plant in Scharnhausen near Stuttgart. Thanks to its modular structure, this facility is optimally prepared both for fully automated high-volume production and for highly flexible production in small batches. Festo manufactures its own products in its own factories with Festo products. The company thus knows exactly how its products perform in everyday use.

For all these developments, the human nevertheless remains at the centre of attention. Robots are used wherever they can relieve the burden on the human operator and can form collaborative teams. The employees can acquire the new skills required for the production of the future in an integrated learning factory and at training stations.

Revolutionary products for the future
However, the leap into the future cannot be achieved by evolution alone. In order to survive, fundamental new concepts must be introduced in the product range. Festo has therefore also asked itself what revolutionary new products must look like. How can largely mechanical products be transferred to intelligent cyber-physical systems? How can we boost our productivity and accelerate the supply chain? What additional benefits and what added-value models will these new products offer our customers in future? How can new tasks be assigned to machinery in the course of regular operation? How can the operator communicate with them better and make them even more versatile? In the laboratories, products are currently being developed which are fit for applications that we can perhaps not even imagine today. Festo relies here on agile, interdisciplinary teams comprising both hardware and software developers who are for example revolutionising mature technologies such as pneumatics with entirely new capabilities.

Nature is a source of inspiration: Festo makes systematic use of the Bionic Learning Network to transfer new technologies such as swarm intelligence, communication capability and autonomy to new technological systems in the form of prototypes.

Digitalisation of the customer interface
The manner of cooperation with customers is also rapidly changing. Along with the classic sales channels, customers are increasingly using the company’s online product catalogue to immerse themselves into the virtual world. Festo speaks here of the “digital customer journey”. This catalogue shows in digital form all of the contact points – from the engineering process with CAD tools, via product selection, configuration, virtual initialisation, up to monitoring over the entire product life cycle.

“Digitalisation enables our customers to design, simulate and operate their production systems as a virtual twin. They thus already know in advance whether the modules of their systems will work together as desired. The complexity of flexible, adaptive production is made controllable through integrated intelligence,” said Dr. Kriwet in Hanover. The data acquired during operation of the systems open up completely new insights into the processes and machinery conditions.

Cloud applications process the resource data into valuable information in real time. Anticipatory maintenance reduces the risk of machine downtime and production losses. Surveillance of temperature curves, compressed air consumption, wear data or mixing ratios, and locating leakages are just some examples of the possibilities now open to operators. A “machinery memory” of the processes is generated that provides the basis for optimal configuration and parametrisation.

Hanover is the ideal showcase
The Hannover Messe trade fair is the ideal venue for Festo to present its latest innovations: here, tried-and-tested solutions encounter astoundingly new applications. Festo sees itself as both a traditional family enterprise and a pioneer of digitalisation. The market will ultimately be the deciding factor. “This year, we have a special highlight in store for visitors to the fair. We are convinced that we will be taking not only ourselves, but also our customers along on a journey into a new era of digitalised pneumatics,” promised Dr. Kriwet. Festo will reveal details of this innovation at its Online Press Conference on 27th March.