July/August 2019

n TECHNOLOGY July/August 2019 www.drivesncontrols.com 20 FESTO HAS developed what it claims is the world’s shortest pneumatic slide. The DGST slide has a twin-piston design and comes in diameters from 6–25mm, and stroke lengths from 10–200mm. The slide houses an integrated guide and end-plate made from one part, thus eliminating torsion and misalignment issues and providing precise movements. Impact shocks at the end-of- stroke are reduced by integral cushioning, while in-built stroke adjustment eliminates the need for additional parts. Festo has also launched new ranges of compact cylinders and guided cylinders for compact assembly systems. Mini-slides consist of a guide driven by a pneumatic cylinder. They provide better performance and reliability than standard cylinders in applications that need a smooth, precision-guided, non-rotating platform for mounting tooling or other actuators. The guidance is particularly important where there are side or pressing/insertion loads. Symmetrical mounting interfaces allow the mini-slide to be used with other actuators, without having to design or machine additional mounting plates, thus saving time and money. This is useful in pick-and-place applications where the slides can be placed in different orientations and mirrored on either side of a robot arm or conveyor belt. The DGST’s high load-carrying capacity and accuracy result from the use of an integral recirculating ball bearing guide and mounting within the aluminium housing. Festo’s second new range is the ultra- compact ADN-S pneumatic cylinder, which is available in 6 and 10mm diameter versions. It is said to offer good performance in a lightweight, space-saving design. It can be mounted in any orientation and is ideal for applications such as testing electronic equipment in small footprints with tight pitches between test location points. The third new range is the DFM compact guided cylinder family, consisting of a single pneumatic piston with an integrated twin- rod guiding platform designed to move heavy loads without bending or wear, thus delivering a long service life. The cylinders, which come in 6 and 10mm diameters, are aimed at applications such as clamping, stopping, holding and lifting. Festo says the design of the guide enables it to handle higher torques and payloads than rival products, ensuring reliable and durable performance despite the compact footprint. “In electronics assembly, medical and laboratory automation, testing and analytical applications, compactness is key,”says Festo product manager, Aruj Abbas.“The market for handheld electronic devices, and growing demand for desktop laboratory automation, are just two examples which are driving our customers’demands for smaller and lighter pneumatic solutions. “Our new linear drives are small, yet deliver the high performance that our customers need,” she adds. “With our new offering we are once again setting a size and performance benchmark and  opening-up new application possibilities for our customers.” www.festo.co.uk/dgst SIEMENS IS MAKING its TIA Portal engineering framework accessible via the cloud, providing fast, flexible, Web-based access to pre-installed environments via any type of hardware, at any place and any time, without needing any installation. It says that this capability will reduce the effort needed to test TIA Portal innovations, allowing the framework to adapt flexibly to a user’s hardware and way of working. There is no need to install the software on local hardware. Using Siemens’ S7-PLCSIM Advanced, applications can be simulated in the cloud. The scalability of the cloud architecture allows customised adaptations to users’ requirements. Project data is stored centrally in a cloud- based FileShare, allowing fast access by users anywhere. It is also easier to distribute project data across a team. Siemens has also simplified the transfer of IIoT data to cloud-based systems by using a new communications processor (Simatic CP 1545-1) with its Simatic S7- 1500 controllers. There is also an IIoT gateway (the Simatic CloudConnect 7) that connects existing systems to the cloud. There are two versions: the Simatic CC712, which connects a S7-300 or S7- 400 via industrial Ethernet; and the CC716, which links up to seven S7 controllers via Ethernet or Profibus/MPI. Festo says that its DGST mini-slide sets a benchmark for compact, yet robust and precise, drives for compact handling systems. Compact pneumatic slides are ‘the smallest on the market’ Automation portal migrates to the cloud