2023/03/16
ID: 2332

Festo Motion Terminal: the flexible cost-cutter

The automation platform VTEM speeds up tire production

With a global production volume of 1.8 billion car tires per year, the focus is very much on efficiency and productivity. This is where the Festo Motion Terminal VTEM comes in: it digitises pneumatics, thereby speeding up processes and reducing costs, for example when transferring the rubber layer to the tire building machine.

Before the green tire* is produced in the tire building machine, the incoming rubber plies are imprinted with different patterns so as to prepare the tire material perfectly for the tire-building machine. Small pneumatic cylinders apply the different patterns to the rubber layers via cams. These must be controlled very precisely in a pressure range of 0.05 to 8 bar. Previously, a proportional valve was used for each individual pressure zone in this application. This design required a lot of installation space and a complex controller.

 

Simpler and less expensive

This process is now simpler and less expensive thanks to the automation platform VTEM because instead of individual proportional valves the Festo Motion Terminal requires only half as many valve slices. With the Festo Motion Terminal, 16 independent pressure zones can be set up. The key here is the digitisation of the pneumatics: the different functions of the Festo Motion Terminal VTEM can be set using software apps.

 

For this particular task in the tire manufacture process, the Motion App “model-based pressure control” is very effective. This compensates for negative influences on the pressure control, such as dead volumes caused by tube lengths, and improves the control precision. The current pressure can be measured for quality control purposes. The connection via Ethernet-based fieldbus interfaces to controllers of standard manufacturers is a practical feature. Even the spare parts list is shorter, as just one valve type is required for many different applications. Since one valve slice on the VTEM can control two valve outputs independently of one other, the installation space required is also smaller.

 

Revolution in automation technology

Fast activation of software apps makes it possible to replace over 50 individual components. This is revolutionising pneumatics by increasing flexibility and energy efficiency, and accelerating production processes. Just as the smartphone turned the mobile communication market on its head a decade ago, so too is the Festo Motion Terminal set to revolutionise automation technology. The new type of function integration – combined with software apps – simplifies the entire value chain, since only one piece of hardware is now required. This is why experts are calling the Festo Motion Terminal VTEM a revolution in automation technology.

 

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. Assigning functions via software has the added benefit of preventing tampering and protecting know-how, since it’s not possible to tell from the outside which functions the valves are executing. Maintenance is also simplified, as long lists of spare and wearing parts are a thing of the past. Condition monitoring is possible using the integrated pressure sensors on the automation platform VTEM.

 

* In technical jargon, a green tire is the raw, unprofiled tire.

Festo est à la fois un acteur mondial et une entreprise familiale indépendante basée à Esslingen am Neckar en Allemagne. Depuis ses débuts, Festo établit des normes en matière de technologie d'automatisation industrielle et de formation technique, contribuant ainsi au développement durable de l'environnement, de l'économie et de la société. La société fournit une technologie d'automatisation pneumatique et électrique à 300 000 clients d'automatisation d'usine et de processus dans plus de 35 industries. Le secteur LifeTech, avec la technologie médicale et l'automatisation des laboratoires, devient de plus en plus important. Les produits et services sont disponibles dans 176 pays du monde. Dans le monde entier, environ 20 800 employés dans environ 60 pays avec plus de 250 succursales ont généré un chiffre d'affaires d'environ 3,81 milliards d'euros en 2022. Sur ce total, environ 7 % sont investis chaque année dans la recherche et le développement. Dans l'entreprise apprenante, les mesures de formation et de développement représentent 1,5 % du chiffre d'affaires. Festo Didactic SE est l'un des principaux fournisseurs d'enseignement et de formation techniques et propose à ses clients du monde entier des solutions complètes d'apprentissage numérique et physique dans l'environnement industriel.

Festo 数字控制终端VTEM,引领气动技术的数字化时代。
© Festo SE & Co. KG
Festo Motion Terminal VTEM 1
Révolution dans l'automatisation avec le Festo Motion Terminal : en ajoutant de nouvelles fonctions via des applications (apps), les développeurs de machines peuvent créer un type de machine de base et équiper cette machine de différentes...
© Festo SE & Co. KG
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