The Festo Incredible Machine celebrates its premiere at the Hannover Messe
To mark the company's 100th anniversary, the automation specialist Festo has designed an extraordinary machine that will be presented for the first time at the Hannover Messe 2025. Based on the principle of a Rube Goldberg machine, it does not manufacture a specific product but tells the story of motion in automation technology that has significantly influenced the family-owned company.
In a laboratory on the Festo campus in Esslingen, a completely new type of application is currently being created to mark the company's 100th anniversary. Many materials and technical devices are being brought into this laboratory and a large team from different departments of the company is working together on an impressive "anniversary exhibit".
The application will demonstrate Festo's diverse skills and extensive expertise in the field of automation technology as well as its innovative spirit to make the impossible possible. After all, inventiveness and a pioneering spirit have been part of the company's DNA from the very beginning. Just as the flap of a butterfly's wings can trigger a chain of movements, sometimes a small impulse brings about significant industrial changes.
From a Small Impulse to the Entire World of Motion
The eMotionButterfly from Festo sets the machine in motion. This impulse starts a fascinating journey of movements within the machine: into a world of industrial automation in which standing still is not an option, characterized by innovation and progress.
With the "Incredible Machine", Festo is looking back at its history, but above all it is looking forward to the future and demonstrating its fascination with motion technologies – whether pneumatic, electric, digital or a combination.
The details of this large machine are still a secret: it will celebrate its premiere at the Hannover Messe 2025. And this is just the beginning, the momentum continues: with the motto "Automation for a world in motion", the family-owned company will successfully start the next 100 years of automation technology, together with its customers and partners.
Festo is a global player and an independent family-owned company with headquarters in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. Festo has set standards in industrial automation technology and technical education ever since its establishment, thereby making a contribution to sustainable development of the environment, the economy and society. The company supplies pneumatic and electrical automation technology to 300,000 customers of factory and process automation in over 35 industries. Digitalization, AI and the LifeTech sector with medical technology and laboratory automation are becoming increasingly important. The products and services are available in 176 countries. With about 20,600 employees in over 250 branch offices in around 60 countries worldwide, Festo achieved a turnover of around €3.65 billion in 2023. Each year around 7% of this turnover is invested in research and development. In this learning company, 1.5 % of turnover is invested in basic and further training. Festo Didactic SE is a leading provider of technical education and training and offers its customers worldwide comprehensive digital and physical learning solutions in the industrial environment.
