Perspectives

Perspectives

Reduce your compressed air energy consumption

There may come a day when all industrial machines will carry an energy consumption rating – until then Festo offers 5 top tips for manufacturers to reduce their energy bills.

Perspectives

Sustainability using controlled pneumatics

Rising energy prices are pushing up the cost of process gases. This not only applies to compressed air, but also to inert gases, oxygen, and exotic gases. These gases are used for many everyday applications, such as food packaging and tyre inflation, as well as highly precise and technical applications in semiconductor production and scientific research. Rising costs have a knock-on effects throughout the supply chain, because production of even the most basic foods, medicines and industrial components is dependent upon the cost of the gases they consume. For manufacturers to remain competitive, the case strengthens for carefully re-evaluating the technology used to control flow and pressures in order to use process gases more efficiently and sustainably.

Perspectives

Cylinder sensors: reed or solid state?

In pneumatic applications, cylinder sensors are usually used to monitor the position of the piston within the actuator. In electric axes, they also function as a reference or hardware limit of movement sensor to prevent crashes. A solid-state version is the best choice in most cases. But for the remaining 10% of applications, a reed sensor is the way to go. This blog explains how cylinder sensors work and the conditions for using a reed or solid-state cylinder sensor.

Perspectives

Robotics in the Food Industry

Andy MacPherson, Industry Manager for Food & Beverage at Festo GB, shares his thoughts on why this is the perfect time for the food industry to invest in robotics and automation.

Perspectives

Resilience in the Food Industry

Andy MacPherson, Food & Beverage Manager at Festo, explains the role that automation has to play in helping food processors cope with change.

Perspectives

Boost your productivity with AI

The challenge with many of today's machine learning packages is interpreting the output results. Anomaly and pattern detection algorithms are becoming widely available and are able to consistently predict part failures in plenty of time for planned stoppages. However, interpreting the data can be a complex task for specialists.

Perspectives

ROI - the case for automation digitalisation

Automation digitalisation does not just improve production and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE): it also has numerous ways of giving you a good return on investment. Festo’s Andy MacPherson offers this advice to key decision-makers wishing to implement a smart factory strategy.

Perspectives

Industry 4.0 comes out of its Shell

Industry 4.0 is revolutionising manufacturing. Remarkable changes are taking place – often behind the scenes – to turn expectations into reality. Steve Sands, Head of Product Management at Festo, explains why the unassumingly named Asset Administration Shell is so crucial to delivering the Industry 4.0 vision.

Perspectives

The significance of ISO standards in pneumatics

Steve Sands, Head of Product Management at Festo, offers some pointers on the significance of ISO standards in pneumatic actuator development and their role in machinery design.

Perspectives

Simplified electric motion combining pneumatics

Warren Harvard, Product Marketing Manager at Festo, argues the case for a more application-led approach to linear motion, including hybrid solutions which can incorporate the simplicity of pneumatics with the benefits of electric automation.

Perspectives

Delivering the electric vehicle revolution

Warren Harvard of Festo describes exciting developments in automation technology that will improve production of Lithium-ion batteries.

Perspectives

Selecting the correct pneumatic solutions

Andy MacPherson, Product Manager for Food & Beverage at Festo, shares five steps to selecting the correct pneumatic solution in food applications

Perspectives

The shape of skills to come

The pandemic has highlighted what many of us already knew: that the skills required to keep our world functioning in future are going to be very different to the traditional trades and specialisms of the past. For example, with Renewable Energy and Electric Vehicles high on the government’s agenda, there is an immediate requirement for trainees to develop knowledge and relevant skills in these areas.

Perspectives

Do all wireless solutions solve industry problems?

Brett Binnekade, an Applications Engineer at Festo, discusses the applications for wireless technology in the automation industry and do all solutions solve real industry problems?