smart automation
Everything from a single source
Festo has been a reliable automation partner in the global production of high-quality food for over 50 years.
Food production is at the intersection of factory and process automation. Festo offers smart automation solutions for food applications, covering the complete production process, with the perfect ingredients for producing the best beverages and foodstuffs.
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esto knows the challenges of the food industry: hygienic and efficient automation is a must for machine and system builders and producers. Having to search for different component suppliers who can meet these requirements and matching the individual parts from different manufacturers is no longer necessary. Single sourcing saves time and money. As a full-range supplier, Festo offers everything from a single source. Festo has been a reliable automation partner in the global production of high-quality food for over 50 years. Its mix of pneumatic and electrical technology helps to create efficient production operations. Festo applies its wealth of experience in factory automation to process automation, too. It covers all the individual levels of the automation pyramid, from the operating level to the field level. Festo can therefore offer not only individual components but also ready-to-install systems for all kinds of tasks and applications in the food industry.
Reliable and efficient The pneumatic pinch valve VZQA provides hygienic, reliable and high-quality dispensing of food: the N/O variant with a silicone diaphragm comes with a declaration of conformity in accordance with EU Directive no. 1935/2004. This pinch valve variant is thus approved for applications involving direct contact with food products.
Decentralised control increases productivity Festo’s automation solutions allow users and designers to create decentralised installation concepts without a control cabinet in harsh and intensively-cleaned environments in the food and beverage 60 | FOOD IRELAND YEARBOOK 2020/21
industry, close to the application for lower energy losses and high cycle rates. The can work either as a solution without a control cabinet, with the Clean Design valve terminal MPA-C, offering the ideal degree of protection IP69K, or with the valve terminal VTUG in a control cabinet with a multi-pin plug, for all standard fieldbus systems or IO-Link.
Flexible applications There is an ever-increasing demand for modular components which can be converted quickly and easily, depending on the requirements. For example, the sturdy and powerful angle seat valve VZXA can be used for the fast and reliable control of media flows. Its carefully thought-out product architecture and patented interface enable valve bodies and actuators to be freely combined. This provides even greater flexibility for any application. The quarter turn actuator DFPD (left), from Festo is another example of robust process automation. Based on the rack-andpinion principle, this actuator offers combinations which are modular, sturdy and versatile. This makes this actuator the right answer to many of the requirements in the food and beverage production.
A world first: digital pneumatics! The Festo Motion Terminal VTEM is the world’s first pneumatic automation platform to be controlled by apps. For the first time ever, the functions of a pilot valve can be changed via software, using the same hardware. Thanks to the fast activation of new functions via apps, machine developers can create a basic machine type and then select the relevant apps to equip it with different functions and features in accordance with customer requirements. The apps replace over 50 individual components. For more information, see festo.com.