Festo Controlled Pneumatics Enables the First High-Precision Proportional Valve Terminal VTEP: Sub-1 mbar Accuracy, 50% Energy Savings

Controlled Pneumatics, the rapidly evolving compressed air technology from Festo, is opening new applications for pneumatics. Its flagship product, the VTEP, is the first proportional valve terminal on the market, offering high precision, fast response times, and dynamic control — while reducing compressed air consumption by up to 50% through high-precision piezo valves.

VTEP: Technical Breakthrough of the First Proportional Valve Terminal

The VTEP is the first proportional valve terminal on the market, offering high precision, fast response times, and dynamic control. Thanks to Controlled Pneumatics technology, the VTEP provides extremely sensitive pressure control down to less than 1 mbar — perfect for applications such as wafer polishing or patch clamping in life science. This level of control enables the VTEP to speed up production while ensuring that manufactured goods are of a higher quality.

At less than 120 mm wide, the VTEP is the most compact proportional valve terminal on the market for pressure control, with up to 10 independent work channels. Three versions are available — with 2-, 3-, and 5-valve positions — which can all be easily integrated for multi-channel applications.

Dual Pressure and Vacuum Control: -1 to +6 bar

Pressure and vacuum can be combined across the control range of -1 up to +6 bar positive pressure. Individual valves can be controlled to regulate pressure, block, or exhaust the system pressure. The directly controlled VTEP uses piezo technology, which together with the appropriate control technology makes the pneumatics extremely precise, fast, and economical.

Additional benefits of piezo valves include quiet operation, freedom from wear, no particle abrasion, and no heat generation — delivering more stable control behaviour over time. The proportional valve terminal is also free of copper, nickel, and zinc, making it highly suitable for battery production and other industrial segments in which these materials are disruptive.

Applications in Semiconductor and Battery Manufacturing

During wafer production, the variable contact pressure of individual polishing chambers on the polishing unit can be controlled with extreme precision by the VTEP. The even pressure guarantees excellent quality results across the entire processing surface, even when polishing delicate wafers. VTEP terminal valves can also be used as pilot valves for larger media valves, playing a critical role in applications such as photolithography.

In battery manufacturing, the copper-free, nickel-free, and zinc-free design is particularly critical, avoiding material contamination that could disrupt battery chemistry. From electrode coating and separator handling to electrolyte filling, the VTEP’s precision pressure control significantly improves yield and consistency.

Cross-Industry Competitive Advantage

The VTEP demonstrates how Festo industrial automation technology makes machines and systems faster and more precise, helping customers in the electronics and semiconductor industries, battery production, life sciences, textile manufacturing, and others to gain decisive competitive advantages. Festo Controlled Pneumatics represents a fundamental rethinking of traditional pneumatics — combining proportional technology, sensor systems, and digital control into a harmonised overall system.

Source: industryemea.com, Festo News, 2024