The AX Movement Insights platform integrates AI with upkeep workflows, enabling distribution and success operations to foretell factors of failure, plan interventions, and scale back unplanned downtime. | Supply: Festo
Whereas automation guarantees a future the place robots can do work across the clock, seven days every week, with out tiring, downtime attributable to surprising points nonetheless holds us again from that future. Festo this week launched its new Festo AX Movement Insights platform, which it stated can scale back unplanned downtime in robotics.
The platform combines AI-based predictive analytics with upkeep workflows, which Festo stated can scale back unplanned downtime throughout conveyors, sortation techniques, palletizers, gantries, and material-handling tools.
This newest platform works with Festo’s current software program lineup. Festo AX Movement Insights Electrical software program screens servo drives and electrical axes. AX Movement Insights Pneumatic software program supplies situation monitoring for pneumatic cylinders.
AX Knowledge Entry serves as the info layer that makes operational expertise (OT) knowledge out there for info expertise (IT) evaluation and integration. Collectively, Festo stated the platforms allow success facilities to scale predictive upkeep capabilities as wants develop moderately than committing to a single, monolithic software program rollout.
Festo stated the platform supplies versatile deployment choices that assist on-premises and cloud-based environments. This permits success and distribution facilities to align predictive upkeep with current IT and operational necessities whereas sustaining management over how and the place knowledge is collected and used.
Festo is a world producer of pneumatic and electromechanical techniques, elements, and controls for course of and industrial automation. The firm has subsidiaries in additional than 60 nations, and a wide-ranging 36,000-product catalog.
Movement Insights seems to be for issues, then takes motion to stop them
Movement Insights identifies the place issues are more likely to happen. Smartenance AX, Festo’s upkeep administration software program, is the hyperlink to motion. Smartenance AX turns predictive perception into deliberate upkeep by directing crews to the more than likely level of failure as an alternative of reacting after a machine stops.
It combines asset monitoring, upkeep planning, and a digital machine logbook, permitting situation knowledge from Movement Insights to set off focused upkeep duties. Along with Smartenance AX, Movement Insights may also be built-in with different upkeep administration techniques, permitting situation knowledge to tell current workflows the place clients choose to maintain their present platforms.
AX Movement Insights Pneumatic supplies common situation monitoring for pneumatic cylinders from all producers with out requiring extra sensors, {hardware} modifications, or mechanical modifications. The software program detects anomalies and efficiency drift in pneumatic movement, figuring out not solely impending failures, but in addition underperformance that may result in inconsistent dealing with, elevated air consumption, and throughput loss.
AX Knowledge Entry connects automation techniques to enterprise IT environments by making operational knowledge out there for evaluation past the management layer. By bridging OT and IT, AX Knowledge allows success facilities to correlate movement efficiency, upkeep exercise, and vitality use with broader operational metrics.
Festo plans for scale and straightforward deployment
AX Movement Insights software program is scalable by design. Machine builders and system integrators buy licenses just for the capabilities and belongings they want, with the power to increase protection over time as automation necessities evolve.
Machine builders and system integrators can incorporate AX movement insights software program into their after-sales assist contracts as a value-added service for his or her clients.
AX Movement Insights Electrical integrates immediately with Festo CMMT multiprotocol servo drives and electrical axes used all through success heart automation techniques. Festo multiprotocol servo drives are appropriate with the main industrial communication protocols, permitting a single drive platform to function throughout blended PLC and community environments.
This simplifies standardization, reduces {hardware} variation in stock, and helps system integrators fee and assist automation techniques extra effectively, Festo claimed. The corporate plans to incorporate assist for extra manufacturers of servo drives and axes.
