Festo online press conference offers preview for Hannover Messe 2016

Core business areas, such as product development, IT, manufacturing, logistics or sales are being redefined in the context of Industry 4.0, and they are being more closely connected and tightly networked.  Prior to the Hannover Messe trade fair, Festo discussed future topics and the potential for modernizing the factory of the future at the Online Press Conference, April 6. The new Bionic and Future Concepts were presented, along with future technical and vocational education and training programs for the skilled employees of tomorrow.

Festo is providing the reference models for Industry 4.0
The question of how we shall be running businesses, living and working in the future is strongly characterised by the process of digitalisation. The ongoing development of digital processes and media is one of the key formative tasks for the coming years and is the topic of much discussion in industry, in the economy and among industrial federations. In the factory of the future people, machines, production systems, logistics and products will directly communicate and cooperate with each other. What this means for Festo, and for individual components, complete systems solutions and factories, will be discussed in the presentation on the topic of reference models for Industry 4.0.
Speaker: Dr. Michael Hoffmeister, Product and Application Trends

Qualification 4.0: Learning in the interests of digital production with the CP Factory – the cyber-physical research and learning factory
The practical training in the use of new technologies in digital production is conducted using the cyber-physical research and learning platform “CP Factory”. The platform replicates the workstations of a real production facility and makes it possible to learn how to program facilities, set up networks and optimize many other aspects such as energy-efficiency and data management. In addition, the CP Factory can also be used to develop and test flexible software solutions prior to their implementation in practice in the production facility.
Speaker: Thomas Lichtenberger, President of Festo Didactic Inc. & Ltee

SupraMotion: Transporting and gripping in suspension
Festo is showcasing three new, exciting concepts for the industrial application of superconductor technology at the Hanover Messe 2016. With these exhibits, superconductors enable the contact-free transfer of carrier plates in the horizontal plane and their transport across a surface of water, and they allow a gripper to be used in suspension and an object to be moved within an enclosed liquid-filled tube. The unique characteristics of superconductors come to the fore here by making low-energy, efficient motion possible in suspension – even beyond walls or through media.
Speaker: Georg Berner, Head of Strategic Corporate Development, Group Holding Festo

Innovations from the Bionic Learning Network 2016
Once again this year, the Bionic Learning Network of Festo will be providing fresh impetus for the production of the future at the Hannover Messe. The projects from the Bionic Learning Network serve as development platforms that combine highly diverse technologies and components – from production concepts and the products used, up to software and control engineering. For this year’s projects, the team from the Bionic Learning Network has been dealing with new processes in “digital fabrication” on the basis of a 3D spinneret, and possible airborne assistance systems for the workspace of the future.
Speaker: Dr. Elias Knubben, Head of Corporate Bionic Projects

For more information, visit www.festo.com.