Festo recently staged an exclusive automation exhibition at UrbanTREE, showcasing the company’s latest automation solutions and innovations in its five business units: pneumatic, electric and process automation, customer solutions and Didactic training. Guests were entertained by top South African comedian, Deep Fried Man, and the day included presentations highlighting new groundbreaking technologies and industry trends. Also featured were Festo’s mobile demonstration and training facilities, Expotainer and Eduvan.
Presenters at the exhibition, from l: Russell Schwulst, business development manager, Nico Landman, head of Festo Didactic, Adrian Bromfield, national sales manager.
Business development manager, Russell Schwulst, painted a picture of Festo’s journey from making woodmaking machinery in 1925 to a leading edge automation solutions specialist today. “Our aim is to inspire and empower you with our smart and intuitive solutions for industrial automation,” he said. “We understand the concepts of automation, that’s what makes us unique.” He added that it’s not about the product it’s the application. To this end, one of Festo’s innovations is Handling Guide Online, an intuitive engineering tool that makes it easy to design, configure and order the right handling system from scratch. Another is the applications centre that allows customers to test any new potential electric drive application in a controlled environment to confirm details like maximum speed, accuracy and cycle time.
National sales manager, Adrian Bromfield, described Festo’s complete pneumatics portfolio. With 32 000 products, the company can offer literally millions of potential combinations. In addition, head of Didactic learning systems, Nico Landman, explained how Festo includes the human factor, with training on the application of its automation solutions on the plant. The cherry on the top was the unveiling of Festo’s new Cyber Physical Laboratory, a modular learning system for training in Industry 4.0. “This will empower people and equip them with the qualifications they need for the production of the future,” he concluded.
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