Festo’s DLGF flat design rodless drive fits tight spaces and budgets
Mississauga, ON, February 2020 – Festo designed the new space-saving, flat, DLGF rodless linear drive as a very economical choice for applications where installation space is especially tight, like in electronics, small parts assembly, packaging and handling technology. Since those space considerations can also make a pneumatic drive harder to adjust or service, Festo also made its proprietary self-adjusting end-cushioning (PPS) standard with DLGF. Self-adjusting cushioning saves time and makes processes more reliable; the drive is always providing the correct cushioning. (Poorly or incorrectly adjusted cushioning can lead to premature wear of a pneumatic drive or even product quality issues.)
The DLGF is significantly flatter and has much smaller installation dimensions than typical rodless actuators and is available in both basic non-guided and recirculating ball bearing-guided versions. This new rodless linear drive comes with multiple pneumatic connection options at different locations on the device: left or right side, both ends or even from below.
DLGF is ideal for tasks such as pushing, gripping, weight compensation, or for moving loads with slow to fast dynamic response with uniform movement. It makes an excellent drive for a space-optimized pick&place unit or creating a long-stroke gripper. With the guided version – KF– there are two different slide interfaces: one on the top for mounting pneumatic slides, and one on the side for mounting up to three ADN pneumatic compact cylinders. Two DLGF drives of the same size can be easily coupled together, although they can have different stroke lengths.
Other benefits of the DLGF are a simple design, sturdy materials, direct mounting of the drive without accessories, easy-to-mount slides without the need for adaptors, and new sealing geometry which saves on compressed air costs.
Festo at a glance
Festo, the world’s leading supplier of automation technology and technical education, is deploying its products and services to meet the challenges of digitization and smart production. Founded in 1925, the family-owned company based in Esslingen, Germany supports a wide range of needs for advanced solutions in factory and process automation. In Canada, Festo has been supporting Canadian industry for almost 50 years, continuously elevating the state of manufacturing in this country with innovative products, optimized motion control solutions and unrivalled support. Globally, some 300,000 customers put their trust in the company’s pneumatic and electric drive products and technology. In addition, Festo Didactic provides state-of-the-art training equipment and educational programs for industrial companies and educational institutions – about 56,000 customers worldwide. The Festo Group registered sales of €3.65 billion in the 2023 financial year and is represented worldwide at 250 locations with about 20,600 employees. About 7.7% of its annual turnover is invested in research and development.