Handling with spatial separation
Contactless working through walls
Thanks to the defined hovering gap, not only can superconducting systems work in all spatial planes, but they can also work through walls. This opens up completely new prospects for handling systems in protected spaces and beyond casings.
SupraModule: wireless control for variable functions
With the SupraModule, different applications can be carried out with the same system whilst hovering. The basis is a magnetic support with integrated control electronics and a power supply.
This floats at a distance of up to ten millimetres above a cryostat with superconductors. Depending on requirements, various systems can be attached to the carrier, for example a compact gripper or a pipettor.
The systems can be controlled wirelessly. This means that, applications in enclosed spaces can be carried out with the SupraModule, which is an advantage in laboratory automation and medical technology, for example.
Integrated products from Festo
SupraTransport: moving with large hovering gap
By combining superconductor technology and a permanent magnetic rail, SupraTransport achieves a particularly large and stable hovering gap. An L-shaped workpiece carrier hovers above a magnetic rail with a large gap thanks to a permanent magnet on its underside. Another permanent magnet is attached at a 90° angle to it, which is coupled with and kept stable by a superconductor. It thereby fixes the position of the workpiece carrier above the magnetic rail.
Between the carrier and the superconductor plus the rail, covers are attached to separate the working space from the surroundings and keep it clean. With the help of electrical axes, both the cryostat with the superconductor, as well as the hovering carrier coupled to it, can be moved along the magnetic rail. The particularly large hovering gap makes it much easier to clean the application. What is more, the carrier is easily able to hover across small obstacles.
Integrated products from Festo
SupraGripper: mechanical gripping with spatial separation
In the case of the SupraGripper, two grippers each with three fingers hover freely above two crescent-shaped plates. This technology could be used, for example, to grip and transport objects through a partition or in enclosed spaces, which is ideal for clean rooms, for example, or for work in gases, a vacuum or liquids.
The hovering effect is achieved by a total of three cryostats, which are fitted underneath the plates and can be moved up and down. This means the grippers either hover above the plates or are placed onto them. In addition, the two plates can be rotated and accurately positioned with the help of two rotary drives, which means that the two grippers can be transported from one cryostat to the next.
Controlled transfer between conventional and hovering grippers
At the start, two conventional grippers transfer one object each to the two hovering grippers. In order to grip an object, electric coils on top of the cryostats give off an electrical impulse. This releases the saved connection to the magnetic gripper elements or restores it. This impulse makes the individual finger elements turn up or down, which in turn causes the grippers to open or close.
Integrated products from Festo
CPX terminal control system with CEC
SupraTube: rotation in a sealed tube
A round cryostat with superconductors is fitted at each end of a sealed glass tube filled with liquid. Inside the vertical tube is a magnetic puck, which is pinned to both cryostats with a hovering gap of around five millimetres and at the start hangs underneath the cryostat positioned on top.
With the help of a stepper motor, a magnetic ring fitted around the cryostats is set in a rotary movement, which is transferred to the hovering magnet. This is pushed away with an electrical impulse from the cryostat and tumbles down in a circular motion. At the other end it is caught again by the superconductor in the other cryostat and centred.
Contact-free cleaning in a fluid environment
The exhibit shows how a movement in a tube can be executed from outside without any access. Using a somewhat modified construction, drives could be fitted with superconductor magnetic coupling along the tube’s longitudinal axis, which guide a cleaning device through without any contact. Alternatively, the contents of a closed container – for instance hazardous liquids or explosive gases – could be safely set into a rotating motion from outside.
Integrated products from Festo
SupraShuttle: hovering in all directions, handling in a vacuum and clean room
The SupraShuttle demonstrates how hovering objects can be moved into hermetically sealed rooms and within these rooms. For this purpose, a dome made of acrylic glass is placed over the magnetic support and forms an enclosed space around it, without the need for lock gates, rails or guide systems.
Festo also uses the SupraShuttle to show the movement of a hovering object in all spatial directions for the first time. To do so, a superconductor module is attached under the baseplate. A magnet, on which the carrier with the vials is fitted, hovers above the module and hence above the baseplate.
Steady hovering in all directions
The magnet follows the module with every movement in the stored hovering distance. If the module moves to the back wall using the rotary drive, the magnet also glides seamlessly from the horizontal to the vertical plane – without touching the floor or being mechanically handled.
Integrated products from Festo
SupraPicker: movement in all directions and in enclosed spaces
The third exhibit shows an hermetically sealed room made from acrylic glass in which a handling operation is completed from start to finish. The SupraPicker is therefore not restricted to a horizontal mode of operation. It can execute any solid angle.
The superconductive gripper arm picks up six small vials outside of the room using a magnetic puck. The gripper arm and gripper can be separated by the air gap between the puck and superconductor. The puck together with the object to be gripped is conveyed through a lock into the closed room, the superconductor moves in parallel outside the room. The handling operation in the closed room can therefore be executed without touching the walls.
