RS, a trading brand of RS Group plc, offers Festo’s extensive portfolio of flexible, cost-effective, and user-friendly electric automation products. Particularly, they are suitable for process control and factory automation applications.

The Festo product portfolio features one of the industry’s most comprehensive selections of electric automation solutions. Moreover, it includes a wide variety of linear and rotary mechanical systems, servo drives and motors, and industrial, and motor control solutions.

In addition, it also offers automation systems, sensors, and grippers engineered to enable the seamless connectivity essential to Industry 4.0 facilities.

Comprehensive Automation Solutions

Festo’s entire line simplifies installation and commissioning processes, facilitates flexibility, and boosts productivity. Moreover, it also supports sustainability efforts. Thus, delivering an excellent price-performance ratio and improving the way people work and companies compete.

These benefits allow users to overcome a wide range of challenges common to process control and factory automation applications in multiple market segments. While Festo offers more than 1,000 different electric automation, there are several that exhibit especially broad appeal. For example, the CMMT-AS servo drives, CMMT-ST servo drives, and CPX-AP-I automation system. They are just a few of the more than 37,000 Festo solutions available at RS.

Festo’s CMMT-AS and CMMT-ST servo drives both enable simple and error-free commissioning of rotary and linear movements in just a few steps. Contributing features include support for several different bus protocols and an auto-tuning function. Hence, enabling seamless integration into Festo control solutions and direct fieldbus integration into other Ethernet-based automation environments.

Most importantly, they are compatible with controllers from all major manufacturers, including Siemens, Rockwell, and Beckhoff. The CMMT auto-tuning function also automatically optimizes the rotary and linear motion control behavior of connected servo motors and linear mechanisms. In addition, both servo drives feature integrated safety functions that can be configured without software, including safe torque off (STO) up to SIL3/Cat 3 PL e and safe stop 1 time controlled (SS1-t), when using a suitable external safety relay unit and circuitry.

Supports Various Automation Needs

Meanwhile, RS’ lineup will also have Festo’s CPX-AP-I automation system. This is a flexible, high-performance, low-cost, and user-friendly remote I/O system. They can support decentralized automation via simple integration into a wide variety of control systems.

The system can be comprised of a PROFINET, PROFIBUS, EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, or ModbusTCP bus interface, up to 80 digital or analog input I/O modules. Also, it can have existing valve manifold connections, and separate M8 or M12 cables for communication and power supply to form voltage zones and ensure stable data transfer.

CPX-AP-I automation systems integrate modules into host systems including IO-Link masters. It can also enable end-to-end connectivity with extended diagnostics and remote maintenance capabilities to increase machine availability, uptime, and productivity. Moreover, it can improve energy efficiency and support real-time communication with a 200Mbaud data rate.

Its real-time communication capabilities and deterministic system behavior enable cycle times up to 250µs. Also, its IO-Link master and configuration software make it quick, easy, safe, and economical to integrate, update, and replace IO-Link devices, such as sensors and actuators. In addition, cable lengths of up to 50m between modules enable enormous system dimensions, and future-proof IP65/67 designs support scalability in a wide range of smart factory applications.