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The levitating transfer of objects beyond system limits not only makes longer process chains without contact possible, it also enables low-maintenance operation in environments with strict cleanliness requirements.
Several functions with just one cryostat: the SupraMultitool illustrates how different automation tasks can be implemented simultaneously as well as flexibly and contactlessly with just a single system. The video shows the stable, linear transport and the safe, contactless rotation of a workpiece carrier.
The design clearly shows the advantages of a superconductive positioning system compared to electromagnetic solutions in terms of stability and reliability. In the SupraMultitool exhibit, a handling system places one workpiece carrier after the other on two different magnets using various positions and movements in order to demonstrate the flexibility of the application.
Integrated products from Festo
The combination of different transport systems using superconductor technology is demonstrated by the SupraLoop exhibit. For this exhibit, three different systems are installed in a circuit: a classic conveyor belt, the Multi-Carrier-System MCS® and a superconductive system.
Several carriers are transported on the SupraLoop. The magnetisation on the underside of the carrier is used both for coupling it with the contactless drive of the Multi-Carrier-System MCS® and for the levitating effect with the SupraMotion system. With a deflector, it can be transferred from the conveyor belt to the cryostats with superconductors and, coupled to the cryostats, it can be moved using levitating motion – even through partitions and walls.
Potential applications for working in cleanrooms
One possible application of this principle is to decouple individual transport slides from a finishing process in order to move them into a cleanroom without contact, or to process the objects on them with gases or liquids in a sealed area.
Integrated products from Festo
With SupraJunction, Festo demonstrates the contactless transport of objects beyond enclosed surfaces and through locks. Two support plates levitate above the superconductors thanks to magnetic rails fitted underneath them. They transport small glass containers on a circuit and transfer them from one superconductor element on one transport system to the next element on another handling system.
During the contactless transfer from one cryostat to the other, an electromagnet attached to an electric axis pulls the support plate onto the next cryostat in the working direction of the magnetic rails. With this system, Festo has achieved the automatic transfer from one system to another in a horizontal plane for the first time, thus enabling the levitating transport in long process chains and beyond system limits.
Easy cleaning and protected transport
Throughout the entire process, the plates levitate above a shallow basin of water. The carrier system and the automation technology are completely separated from one another; this protects the components against contamination and enables very easy cleaning – ideal for applications in the packaging industry, laboratory automation, medical technology, or the food or pharmaceutical industry.
Integrated products from Festo
The SupraCycle shows for the first time the active transfer of a levitating permanent magnet from one superconductor automation module to another. Three cryostats with superconductors, which can be rotated by 360°, are installed on a base plate. Two magnetic workpiece carriers are frozen in the cryostats with a levitating distance of a few millimetres from the superconductors and then transferred in turn from one cryostat to the next. A device on the cryostats provides the necessary integrated intelligence.
Cross-system conveying
The SupraCycle could be used as a basis for a number of potential applications. These include the possible contactless transfer of an object carrier between two systems or beyond system limits, as shown for example in the exhibit with glass vials. This makes process chains of any length possible for the first time.
Integrated products from Festo
