Festo inaugurates automation parts engineering center at ITRI

Taipei, Feb. 9, 2004 (CENS)--Festo, the world's No. 2 supplier of pneumatic industrial automation equipment, recently inaugurated an engineering center at the open laboratory of Taiwan's government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

Festo set up the engineering center under the assistance of Mechanical Industry Research Laboratories of ITRI and the new center will pave the way for Festo to establish an R&D center in Taiwan.

Festo plans to set up a R&D center on the island and cooperate with local semiconductor and flat panel display (FPD) equipment makers to jointly develop some key parts and components for industrial automation.

Festo is a Germany-based company, founded in 1925. The company has been the world's first specialized maker of pneumatic parts products and currently ranks as the world's No. 2 such supplier trailing SMC of Japan. Festo now supplies over 16,400 series of pneumatic parts, including over 20,000 items with unique designs in their fields, for various applications to electronics, semiconductors, opto-electronic and automobile industries.

Festo's basic product range comprises drives, valves, valve terminals, installation-saving connector systems, handling and assembly technology, air preparation equipment, fittings, vacuum technology, position and quality monitoring, sensors and control technology, as well as a comprehensive range of educational and training products.

According to Festo, it currently owns about 2,800 patented product items and 210 application patents. The company offers an average of about 100 innovative products per year and its sales/service network, including 52 subsidiaries worldwide, is spread in 176 nations of the world.

A senior Festo official said that his company plans to invest a total of about NT$50 million (US$1.5 million) to set up engineering and R&D centers in Taiwan. In the initial stage, the company will concentrate on the development of pneumatic automation parts and components for semiconductor- and opto-electronic-relevant lines and will further upgrade the island's technological level in the said the peripheral industries by setting up close cooperation ties with relevant private makers, government units and the academic sector.

Festo's next-stage goal, according to the official, is to match the island's vivid development of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and nano-meter manufacturing industries and develop required technologies and products for applications in production equipment automation.