trends in automation

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Productivity Contest 2015
Unusual automation solutions
Germany/International
Productivity Contest 2015: the three winners from Germany,
Hungary and India, Thomas Ullrich, Bálint Füvessy and Ajith
Anil Meera (from left to right).
The enthusiasm for Festo components knows no professional limits.
For the Productivity Contest 2015, dedicated hobbyists from around
the world uploaded videos of their systems to Festo’s Facebook fan
page. The result was 24 impressive submissions of creative develop-
ments and designs. The Facebook community selected their top ten.
From these, three prize winners were selected by a professional Festo
jury and invited to the Hannover Messe.
First prize went to Thomas Ullrich from Augsburg, who developed a beer
pouring machine for wheat beer. It prevents the head from frothing up
excessively in the glass, empties the yeast from the bottle at the right
time with several skilful rotations and pours the drink precisely. In sec-
ond place came the Hungarian Bálint Füvessy who created an automat-
ed wine opener. And third place went to Ajith Anil Meera from India,
who built a robot that can climb walls.
The winning videos:
Efficient: a one-gallon bottle can be completely
filled with water in less than 19 seconds.
Estonia
Fast water
Efficient filling with the pinch valve VZQA
Saaremaa Vesi has been bottling high-quality ground water from
the Viidumäe Nature Conservation Area since 2001. The company
supplies this bottled drinking water from the largest island in the
country, Saaremaa, to the wholesale and retail markets. In order
to achieve the highest possible flow rate when filling 5-litre bot-
tles, Saaremaa Vesi opted for the pinch valve VZQA in combination
with the fast switching valve MHE4. With its full bore passage, the
pinch valve VZQA makes full use of the complete cross-section of
the line and so optimises the throughflow. The VZAQ’s fast closing
times of only 250 ms produce precise fill levels. The filling systems
of Saaremaa Vesi use a particularly cost-effective and simple
control component to determine the fill height – the flow sensor
SFAW, which means that no other sensor technology is required.
The potential applications of the pinch valve are by no means
restricted to liquids. It can also provide an ideal means of control-
ling the flow of gases, highly viscous oils, and granular materials
such as sand and granulates. The pinch valve VZQA can be actu-
ated with low operating pressures. Depending on the medium
and media pressure, an operating pressure of just 0.3-1 bar is
sufficient in filling and metering applications to tightly shut off the
media flow.