Legal form:
Limited partnership
Registered office: Esslingen a. N.
Registry court Stuttgart
HRA 211583
Value added tax id. number:
DE 145 339 206
General partner:
Festo Management
Aktiengesellschaft
Registered office: Vienna/Austria
Commercial registry court:
Commercial court Vienna
Register no. FN 303027 d
Management Board:
Dipl.-Ing. Gerhard Borho
Dipl.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Oliver D. Jung (Chairman)
Dr. Ansgar Kriwet
Dr. Dirk Erik Loebermann
Dr. Frank Melzer
Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Frank Notz
Chairman of the Supervisory Board:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus Wucherer
Festo AG & Co. KG

Ruiter Straße 82
73734 Esslingen
GERMANY
Phone +49 711 347-53094
Fax +49 711 34754-53094
henriette.luik@festo.com
www.festo.com

Date

Our reference
CC-T/OSTA	
Press release CC-T_07_2019_HM_ SupraMotion_EN	
	
SupraMotion: contact-free, quiet and clean	
New contactless movement concepts with superconductivity	
	
The requirements placed on the cleaning of production facilities and their purity are increasing – particularly in future-oriented fields such as medical technology, laboratory automation or biotechnology. Thanks to superconductor technology, these demands could easily be fulfilled in future. At the Hannover Messe 2019 trade fair, Festo is once more showcasing two new concepts in this field: with the SupraMultitool, several functions can be carried out with only one superconductor element; and SupraDrive 2.0 demonstrates smooth, linear transport of objects – with precise positioning. In both exhibits, superconductivity allows low-energy movement in suspension and facilitates cleaning.	

In the future, many manufactured products will move quietly and cleanly through the production shops, with low energy consumption and without contact. Contact-free, frictionless handling beyond walls and in any spatial orientation, which will become possible thanks to superconductor technology, will yield entirely new solutions – especially in highly pure environments. Medical technology, laboratory automation, biotechnology and food production are decisive future fields of automation, which are showing great potential for growth over the coming decades. Reliable cleaning is essential for hygienically safe production in these applications. 

Contact-free production of the future
The spatial separation of a product from its handling equipment in a vacuum, in a clean room, in gases or liquids ensures protected transport to meet the highest demands. “The special characteristics of superconductors open up great potential wherever contact-free storage or handling is required. Automation can thus make inroads into areas of application that until now have been regarded as not or only hardly accessible to automation,” said Georg Berner, Head of Strategic Corporate Development, Group Holding Festo and Project Coordinator for the SupraMotion concepts. “Our customers, and their customers in turn, benefit from this paradigm shift in automation. Festo has therefore been investigating and developing this technology for more than ten years. We are currently working together with customers on trendsetting pilot projects.” 

What are superconductors?
Superconductors are materials which below a certain temperature can store the field of a permanent magnet at a predefined distance. This effect enables objects to be held in position and manoeuvred without contact. The levitation gap remains stable even beyond walls. Thanks to their restoring forces, the superconductive magnetic bearing components autonomously return to their memorised position even after one of them is temporarily removed – entirely without external control engineering.

At the Hannover Messe 2019 trade fair Festo is showcasing two new possible applications of SupraMotion:

SupraMultitool: performing several functions simultaneously with only one cryostat
The SupraMultitool demonstrates how different automation tasks can be simultaneously carried out flexibly and without contact, using only one system. On display are the stable, linear transport and secure, contact-free rotation of a workpiece carrier. This configuration clearly shows the advantages of superconductive storage in terms of stability and reliability as compared with electromagnetic solutions. At the SupraMultitool exhibit, a handling system positions a workpiece carrier on two different magnets in turn to demonstrate the flexible possibilities for application. 

SupraDrive 2.0: smooth linear transport
Based on the SupraDrive exhibit presented in 2017, SupraDrive 2.0 is fitted with two integral 1.5-metre cryostats with superconductors, which make for particularly smooth and at the same time dynamic movement of the transport sledge. The cryostats are tilted at an angle to each other. By this means, they additionally centre and stabilise the transport sledge from both sides. With SupraDrive 2.0, the movement and precise positioning are likewise affected by the drive unit from the Multi-Carrier-System MCS®. Like all SupraMotion exhibits, these two SupraDrive concepts can be used for example in applications that require the equipment to be cleaned frequently or during regular operation.

Please refer to:	Festo Press Image SupraMotion 1	
		
Caption:	With superconductor technology, objects can be stored and moved without contact – as with the SupraDrive 2.0 exhibit.
(Photo: Festo AG & Co. KG)	

Please refer to:	Festo Press Image SupraMotion 2	
		
Caption:	At the SupraMultitool exhibit, a handling system positions a workpiece carrier on two different magnets in turn.
(Photo: Festo AG & Co. KG)	

About Festo:
Festo AG is a global player and an independent family-owned company with headquarters in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. The company supplies pneumatic and electrical automation technology to 300,000 customers of factory and process automation in over 35 industries. The products and services are available in 176 countries. With about 21,200 employees in over 250 branch offices in 61 countries worldwide, Festo achieved a turnover of around €3.2 billion in 2018. Each year around    8 % of this turnover is invested in research and development. 

In this learning company, 1.5 % of turnover is invested in basic and further training. Yet training services are not only provided for Festo's own staff – Festo Didactic SE also supplies basic and further training programmes in the field of automation technology for customers, students and trainees.

Further information:
Press text and photos are also available online at www.festo.com/press.
Or mobile at http://m.festo.com/press.

Contact:
Festo AG & Co. KG
Sibylle Wirth, Head of Corporate Communication – Technology 
Telefon: +49 711 347-50814
E-Mail: presse@festo.com

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