Festo is an innovator in contactless weighing for cleaner environments

Contactless weighing is possible with Festo's new SupraSensor superconductor technology.

A global leader in automation, Festo is revolutionizing contactless weighing and precise measurement with its SupraSensor concept. This solution will be a boost to the medical and pharmaceutical industries, in which maintaining ultra-clean, germ-free working conditions is essential. SupraSensor superconductor technology uses magnetic-field-based hovering to operate contactless scales.

With SupraSensor, Festo demonstrates the potential of contactless weighing, not only in medical environments, but in other commercial applications.

Making laboratory workspaces germ-free

Medical equipment brought into a workspace from outside is a potential cause of contamination, even with great vigilance. When scales, test tubes, or Petri dishes are placed on work surfaces, crawl spaces that are hard to keep clean form underneath them. Festo’s SupraSensor concept is designed to eliminate this risk.

Consider a demonstrator application for a safety workbench in biological or chemical analysis. A cryostat with a superconductor is fixed permanently on a set of precision scales under the work surface, and a weighing pan with a permanent magnet on its underside hovers above the surface. The pan never touches the surface, but is coupled without contact to the superconductor and scales. When cooled to a specific temperature, superconductors can make magnets hover at a defined gap to make all this possible.

With contactless weighing, it is easier to clean surfaces in laboratories, which remain without disruptive elements. Weighing pans can be removed if not required to make entire spaces available. Measuring and weighing are not the only benefits of this concept; other possibilities include analytical density, viscosity determination, precise dispensing, and monitoring reactive or biological processes. The superconductor application is robust and stable as far as space and time go, as the materially intrinsic hovering function does not need control technology, remaining in place for a long time even in the case of power interruption.

Festo is showcasing two additional superconductor applications at the Hannover Messe trade fair in April: the SupraMultitool, which can carry out several functions with one superconductor element, and SupraDrive 2.0, which uses precise positioning for smooth, linear conveyance of objects. Both applications facilitate cleaning with low-energy movement in suspension.

For more information, contact Festo.

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