Festo VTUX: Pioneering a New Era of Open-Architecture and Pneumatic-Electric Integration for Valve Islands
2024-07-15From July 3rd to 5th, 2024, at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, the 2024 Shanghai International Automobile Manufacturing Technology and Equipment & Materials Exhibition (AMTS) kicked off its doors. Festo, a global leader in industrial automation and educational training, showcased its innovative solutions for the automotive industry under the theme “Digital-Electric Dual-Drive, Smart Manufacturing Value,” leveraging digitalization, electrification, and automation technologies. Festo, together with its partners, discussed the transformation to a “digital” and “smart” future and explored the path to sustainable development in the automotive manufacturing industry.
In the wave of industrial automation, each technological innovation is pushing the boundaries of productivity. In response to the new trend of digital intelligence, Festo launched its new generation of valve island automation control platform – VTUX, which made a brilliant appearance at the exhibition. Festo invented the world’s first valve island in 1987. As a culmination of past classic valve islands, this product not only showcases Festo’s technological strength but also represents the official entry of valve island technology into a new era of open architecture and pneumatic-electric integration.
The VTUX valve island is leading the technology towards a more efficient, intelligent, and flexible future. The design concept of the VTUX valve island deeply aligns with user needs. The electrical and pneumatic parts are designed with “standard” and “enhanced” versions, but are also interchangeable and compatible in use. The resulting four forms can perfectly cover most of the automation application scenarios in the market. Relying on the VTUX valve island platform, customers can use a series of platforms to design the valve island requirements for all workstations, greatly simplifying the complexity of selection, optimizing the cost design, and eliminating the compatibility issues between different brands and series.
Its unique pneumatic connection method makes all the pneumatic tubes face the same direction, effectively reducing the overall width and optimizing the machine layout. At the same time, the modular valve quantity design ensures that the same or higher flow output can be flexibly responded to various application requirements with only one valve width. Especially the combination of 10mm and 12mm airway board bases further enriches the functional diversity of the valve island. With high-performance lightweight materials and innovative structural design, the VTUX valve island can not only easily cope with a variety of intelligent manufacturing scenarios but also demonstrates its technical leadership with outstanding flexibility and modularity.
In terms of communication capabilities, the VTUX valve island also performs excellently. Its internal serial connection supports up to 128 different valve functions, fully meeting the pneumatic control needs of different scenarios. What’s more, it is compatible with the CPX-AP-A remote I/O system, enabling convenient remote monitoring and control, and greatly improving operational efficiency. With advanced AP communication technology, it can easily connect seamlessly with various bus systems, providing users with unprecedented choices and possibilities. At the same time, it supports flexible conversion of various pressure partitions as well as parallel and serial connections, allowing users to quickly customize the most suitable solutions according to actual needs.
Whether it is in the automated production line, automotive manufacturing, packaging logistics, or in the fields of robot technology, printing equipment, etc., the VTUX valve island can significantly improve production efficiency and product quality by accurately controlling pneumatic actuators. Against the backdrop of Industry 4.0 and intelligent manufacturing, the Festo VTUX valve island, with its open architecture and pneumatic-electric integration, will undoubtedly become an important driving force in the field of industrial automation. It will shine brightly in the future industrial automation process together with existing classic valve islands such as VTSA, bringing unprecedented innovation and value to the industry.