COMPRESSED AIR IN CONSTRUCTION
14 December 2004 - Festo

Building castles on air – air features in much more than just Festo’s components. Airy architecture also characterises this manufacturer’s Technology Centre for automation technology in Esslingen-Berkheim. Pneumatics are used throughout and particularly in the area of building automation, where they control, among other systems, the largest adsorption-based refrigerating plant in the world.

Built between 1999 and 2001 with the aim of extending the company’s headquarters, the Technology Centre is based on a consistent, fully integrated concept for buildings, interiors and the world of work – all encompassed in one, extremely modern energy-saving building. Some 1,200 employees work here on the future of automation technology. In terms of the floor plan, the building has a gross surface area of 33,900 m² and forms the shape of a hand with six fingers, between which three generously sized atria offer space for meetings, discussions and events. Timeless aesthetics and innovative technologies also contribute to making visible the long-term thinking behind and future orientation of this architecture and to giving it life.

Paradoxically despite being fully glazed, the Festo Technology Centre is an energy-saving building. This is due, among other factors, to the triple glazing, which insulates the building optimally against heat and cold. In addition, the use of solar energy and of waste heat in the compressors in winter saves on energy that is sourced from fossil fuels. In summer the Technology Centre is cooled by the groundwater and the three largest adsorption refrigerator systems ever built, which convert ground heat, and also process heat from production, into cold air.

Festo components play an important role: in the operation of the adsorption-based refrigerating systems, Copar-type pneumatic quarter-turn actuators regulate the cut-off flaps with a tube diameter of up to 400 mm in order to supply up to 1,500 kW of cold water peak performance. Robust and corrosion-resistant with torques of up to 8,800 Nm and a temperature range of -20°C to +80°C, these drives are tailor-made to the requirements of process automation. In total, some 180 of the quarter-turn actuators for the flap control systems that are used to shut off heat-carrying media and refrigerants and 38 double-acting drive cylinders are in constant use in the building’s process engineering systems.

Compressed air is also used to provide shade in the atrium roofs: these comprise 3-ply ETFE padded foil segments that remain in place thanks to the internal pressure and which are printed with a chessboard pattern. In order to provide shade, the foils are pneumatically moved upwards or downwards and push against one another such that positive and negative chessboard patterns are revealed.

Especially for the control of heating, air conditioning, ventilation and cooling systems, Festo has equipped its own valve terminal, CPV 14 with a LON (Local Operation Networks) component, in order to achieve a comprehensive LON system within building automation. Supplemented by the digital CAN input module, CPE-16, the valve terminal possesses comprehensive functionalities such as counters, adjustable limit values and two-point regulators.

All told, 2,000 LON components control innumerable pneumatic ventilation dampers, electrical blind drives and light switches. The main attraction is that building technicians can, using a pocket computer with web browser, log into the building’s Intranet wirelessly via Bluetooth access points and thus access the technical systems immediately. In this way, they can for example switch on the adsorption refrigerating plant in the basement or view fault protocols on any part of the building technology system.

http://www.festo.com

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