Festo has launched a clean energy project at its North American Regional Service Center along I-71. Roof-mounted solar panels will supply 48 percent of the facility’s electricity requirements – 2.6 million kilowatt hours (kWh) – after completion of the project, which is slated for next year. One of Ohio’s leading solar power companies, Kokosing Solar Power, Athens, Ohio, is the project’s general contractor.

The Olympic Games in Paris are over – now another French metropolis is taking center stage: Lyon will host the 47th WorldSkills from September 10 to 15, 2024. The WorldSkills Championships will bring together more than 1,500 young people from over 65 countries and regions to compete in 62 competitions.

Every two years since 1950, young skilled workers from all over the world have competed in the WorldSkills Championships. They measure their skills in the individual trades in accordance with the demanding WorldSkills standards. The participants qualify beforehand through a national selection process.

Festo introduces its newest generation of Cartesian-handling-system mechanical axes. The ELGD-TB, tooth belt actuators, and ELGD-BS, ball screw actuators, are based on an innovative Festo design. 

Festo is working hard to equip its automation components with a digital twin – a digital representation in the form of administration shells. The company has joined forces with other German automation partners and the Industrial Digital Twin Association because standardization is what machine and system builders expect.

Festo introduces the company’s latest online productivity tool – Electric Motion Sizing – for error-free sizing of linear and rotary electromechanical systems. Electric Motion Sizing improves project efficiency by slashing the engineering time required for identifying and specifying harmonized electric motion systems. Multi-axis handling systems can be specified with Electric Motion Sizing’s sister productivity tool Handling Guide Online, which offers similar benefits.  

Festo's UR+ certified multi-axis solution for Universal Robotics (UR) cobots adds up to four axes of motion beyond the UR cobot six axes, and embodies Festo precision, reliability, and longevity. This solution from Festo lowers customer engineering time and speeds startup as it arrives ready to install

Festo and Q.ANT, a wholly owned subsidiary of TRUMPF, are entering into a strategic partnership to cultivate biomass on an industrial scale. The two companies aim to achieve this using a combination of automation technology from Festo and quantum technology from Q.ANT. Algae offers significant potential in this context.

Manufacturing is facing constant challenges stemming from labor shortages and disrupted supply chains to productivity declines and the high replacement and maintenance costs of legacy equipment. Trends today include equipment upgrades, e-commerce, a push for more robotics and automation and faster software and IIoT solutions.

PTE examines educational and training programs in mechanical power transmission, automation, motion control, robotics and mechatronics regularly in the PTE Revolutions Blog. Today, we're looking at mechatronic training with Festo.