Festo drives and actuators

Drives and actuators – Festo offers drives and actuators for a wide range of applications in factory automation. In addition to pneumatic drives, which are especially easy and cost-efficient to commission, we also offer servo-pneumatic position systems for controlled pneumatic positioning technology and electric drives for flexible linear or rotary positioning.

Our drives are used in numerous industry segments as the core component in pneumatic and electric control and drive technology. See Festo DFPD Actuators.

Using drives and actuators – Conventional application areas for pneumatic drives include mechanical movements such as clamping, lifting, countersinking. gripping, stopping and much more. Servo-pneumatic drives are primarily used in “soft” positioning technology because air is a compressible drive medium. Typical application areas for electric drive technology can be found throughout automation technology, especially in the field of positioning.

Pneumatic cylinders – The range of pneumatic cylinders drives at Festo includes piston rod and rodless cylinders (linear drive), rotary cylinders, tandem, multi-position and stopper cylinders, as well as clamping cylinders, drives with linear guides, and bellows and diaphragm cylinders. As part of the range, we offer many standards-based cylinders with standardised dimensions and mounting interfaces. Cylinders that comply with a specific standard have identical dimensions. There are standards for piston rod cylinders with round design (ISO 6432), compact design (ISO 21287) and for profile and tie rod cylinders (ISO 15552).

Servo-pneumatic positioning systems – As the global market leader in servo-pneumatic systems, Festo now presents the third generation of servo-pneumatic drive systems. Our systems always consist of a cylinder with displacement encoder, a proportional directional control valve and a position controller/axis controller, and we also offer separate displacement encoders and sensor interfaces as well as cables and accessories. These systems offer good value for money, especially for moving weights over 10 kg.

Electric drives – Within our electric drive range, we offer electric rotary drives, stoppers, handling modules and accessories for electric drives, in addition to electric axes, cylinders and mini slides. The drive type, such as a spindle drive or toothed belt drive, plays an important role, as does the guide. We generally divide guides into three categories: plain-bearing guides, recirculating ball bearing guides and roller bearing guides. The electro mechanics are characterised above all by robustness and rigidity as well as precision and dynamic response. For example, the linear mechanics achieve speeds up to 10 m/s, accelerations up to 50 m/s² and a repetition accuracy of +/– 15 µm. Strokes up to 8.5 m are available as standard.