

Bulletins
Several tonnes of sausages are smoked by Bösinger in each batch. The smoke is produced
using beech and pine chips, which are smouldered using special smoke generators.
Star:
What are the challenges when
designing a smoking plant?
Wurster:
Keeping the flavour and col-
our at a consistently high level for
every one of the ten thousand
smoked sausages is an art in itself.
Star:
What about the plant itself?
Wurster:
We need to be able to guar-
antee our customers an extremely
high level of plant availability as well
as a long service life for that plant.
Star:
How does that manifest itself?
Wurster:
Our smoke generators are
designed to run 24 hours a day,
7 days a week for 20 years. (laughs)
Smoking hot
sausages!
Star:
So selecting the right compo-
nents is critical?
Wurster:
Absolutely! That is why we
switched to standard components
from the Festo core product range
across the entire control chain.
Star:
Why?
Wurster:
We believe that Festo’s core
range means reliability. With Festo,
we get everything from a single
source. Including fast spare parts
service and therefore reduced ware-
housing.
Star:
You mean quality down to the
smallest details?
Wurster:
Our customers always say
that nothing is too much trouble when
it comes to sausages. Every detail is
important. We agree and that’s why
we use Festo’s core range of products!
Why Germos GmbH uses Festo ‚ s core product range
Interview
Germos GmbH based in Remshal-
den is a leading manufacturer and
developer of smoke houses.
Bösinger Fleischwaren GmbH is
one of the biggest producers of
original Black Forest ham.
Bernd Wurster,
CEO Germos GmbH
The semi-rotary drive DRRD is an
extraordinary member of the Festo
core product range. This is not just
because it is an award winner (see
page 4: ‘Outstanding pneumatic
innovation’), but also because of the
large choice of flexible variants
which make this product a star
among the stars. Take a look at just
a few of the special application fea-
tures.
The DRRD is available with end-posi-
tion locking, preventing unwanted
movement in the event of a pressure
failure. Or, should you need addi-
tional position sensing, there is also
a variant with which you can detect
the mechanical position directly.
What if you require full drive torque
in the end positions? No problem for
the variant with external shock
absorbers. The DRRD can also be
adapted to many different applica-
tions using internal cushioning vari-
ants.
To further simplify component selec-
tion, DRRD installations are really
easy to plan and configure using
Just a few of the variants of semi-rotary drive DRRD.
One type for all applications
Semi-rotary drive DRRD leaves nothing to be desired
Festo’s perfectly matched valves,
sensors and accessories from the
core product range. It just shows
that a lot of thought has gone into
product design and development
with the customer’s needs in mind!
www.festo.co.za/drrdPssst! The com-
ment column
The Oscar goes to ...
Every spring, film buffs and lovers of
glitz and glamour turn their attention
to Hollywood, where the year’s best
movie performances are honoured at
the Oscars, including for “Best Sup-
porting Actor”. This is the actor who
makes an important contribution to
the film as a whole. In German, the
meaning of ‘supporting actor’ is down-
played by its translation as “Neben-
rolle”, which literally means “second-
ary role”. This clearly diminishes its
importance.
Are secondary roles a minor matter?
We all know that there is no such
thing as a secondary role when it
comes to successful teamwork. Imag-
ine if the design engineer of an auto-
mation solution cared less about
selecting the mounting components,
tubing and cables than he did about
the drive section. We all know what
the result of that would be. An unsta-
ble process and a system that doesn’t
work. In other words, a whole heap of
problems. The same is true every-
where. Our entire life is influenced by
this principle.
The devil is in the detail
Wherever we look - in our immediate
surroundings, in our place of work, in
everything we do - Nothing is unim-
portant. Nothing is without conse-
quence. There are no secondary roles.
The musings of A.K. Stahl
Smart, cost
effective swivelling
Semi-rotary drive DRVS
Seven sizes
Compact design
Attractive price
www.festo.co.za/drvsADN, ADVC, DSBC, DFM and DRRD.
These are the drives of the Festo core
product range, and they all do pretty
much the same thing – advance and
retract a piston, back and forth.
But something has changed in the last
few years. Thanks to more sophisti-
cated sensors and more intelligent
automation technology, drives today
have application ranges that would
Sensors opening up new possibilities
Sensor from the SDAT series on a standard
DSBC cylinder.
tions where welding plays a role. The
ability to output the position data via
IO-Link with the SDAT sensor, opens up
a host of new possibilities and applica-
tion approaches.
As development and innovation contin-
ues, you can expect to see many more
benefits in the future. Cylinders are no
longer just tough and durable drives,
they can now be applied in sensitive
environments too.
not have been achievable just a few
years ago. With sensors from Festo’s
SDAT series, it is possible to identify
piston positions.
Applications such as filling and bond-
ing (i.e. processes that involve the
precise measurement of liquid media),
can thus be monitored. The same
applies to processes for bending,
pressing, screwing or other applica-