Drives

Pneumatic drives

Servo-pneumatic positioning systems

Electromechanical drives

Pneumatic drives A pneumatic cylinder is an actuator operated with compressed air usually up to a maximum of 12 bar in order to generate linear or rotary motion. A distinction should be made between single-acting and double-acting cylinders (work is performed only in one direction or in both directions). Typical application areas for pneumatic drives are clamping, lifting, countersinking, pushing, pulling, feeding, turning, gripping, clamping and holding and many others. Pneumatic drives are characterised by high acceleration and deceleration. Pneumatic drives are sturdy and flexible thanks to the compressibility of the air.

Servo-pneumatic positioning systems At Festo, servo-pneumatics stands for controlled pneumatic positioning technology. Servo-pneumatics is always a system consisting of a cylinder with a displacement encoder, a proportional directional control valve, and a position controller. With a servo-pneumatic system, a pneumatic cylinder can be moved to a preset target position in a position-controlled manner or generate a preset target force in a force-controlled manner. Servo-pneumatics is a “soft” positioning technology because air is a compressible drive medium. When the drive is in a controlled position, it can be pushed away by a correspondingly large external force. These systems are good value for money, especially for moving weights over 10 kg.

Positioning drives – planning and designing electric drives Create the optimum drive package quickly and reliably. Positioning drives calculate suitable combinations of the electric axis, electric motor and motor controller using just a few application details. It provides you with all the relevant data, including the bill of materials and documentation for the selected combination. This helps avoid design errors and results in significantly improved energy efficiency for the system.