Festo guided drives, slides are commonly used in machine design

The DFM guided drive is a core Festo product.

Festo Canada’s inventory of automation products includes pneumatic guided drives and slides. Many companies are increasingly using these products in a variety of machine-design applications in which the advantages of added guidance for the piston lead to better performance. These slides and drives are cost-effective solutions that ensure reliability and longevity with their many variants and configuration options.

Festo offers two standard products in this area: the DFM guided drive, which is sturdy and reliable even with high torques, and the DGSL pneumatic mini-slide, unique in its compact design and easy installation.

Excellent value and convenience

Both of these Festo products will suit most applications while offering excellent value and convenience. Each of them has a single piston, but guided drives like the DFM also have two integrated guide rods to ensure piston integrity. The piston and rods connect to the yoke assembly that holds all tooling, which stops the piston from twisting or turning due to lateral force. This ensures operational stability during such tasks as pressing, pulling, pushing, clamping, stopping, restraint, holding, cutting, separation, or lifting loads as heavy as 200 kilograms.

Compact, study, and maintenance-free, DFM guided drives do not require any assembly and are available with either a plain-bearing guide for high rigidity or a recirculating ball-bearing guide for applications that involve torque loads. They are available in several different sizes, with stroke lengths of up to 200 millimetres. One specialty model is the DFM-B line, which is built for heavy loads or high speeds. Another, the Clean Design DGRF, is perfect for applications with frequent intensive cleaning, such as in food processing.

The DGSL and other mini-slides have the piston integrated into a wide, flat guide to enable a precise movement and top repeatable accuracy, even with lateral loads and torque. These guided slides offer greater precision than a standard slide or mini-cylinder; this makes them perfect for assembly of electronics or small auto parts, for dispensing applications, and other pick-and-place tasks.

As part of the Festo core product range, the DFM and DGSL are always in stock locally.

For more information, contact Festo.

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