9. Impact on our customers and society 9.5 Learning solutions in solar and wind energy technology As sustainability and energy efficiency are increasingly integrated into the strategic objectives and action plans of industrial companies, eco-friendly competencies and expertise must already be built up during training. The ROC Friese Poort vocational school in the Netherlands shows how it can be done in its Sustainable House, among other things with learning solutions from Festo Didactic. Wind and solar energy are abundant in the Netherlands. What could be more natural than to teach young people about the technical school and offer training in the technical handling of energy systems? How does a solar collector work? How do you control a wind turbine? And how do you use electricity storage efficiently? The Dutch vocational school ROC Friese Poort enables young people to build up skills in the field of sustainable technology solutions in a hands-on way. In its Sustainable House, the learning system from Festo Didactic has been set up, including a solar collector, an electricity storage system and a wind turbine. The learning solutions for solar and wind energy technology from Festo Didactic enable the hands-on development of skills in the field of energy generation from renewable resources. Another concrete example can be found in the Netherlands: the Da Vinci College was home to one of the first wind-turbine learning systems in the country. Future wind power technicians can use the nacelle wind-turbine learning system to gain experience in their specialist field. The learning system is a miniaturised version of commercial wind-turbine nacelles, with which trainees can operate electrically or hydraulically operated pitch hubs for rotor adjustment. It consists of a complete drivetrain with a main shaft, gearbox, speed sensors, a hydraulic brake and an asynchronous generator. A three-phase generator teaches the subjects about grid feed-in and grid synchronisation under realistic conditions. The system ensures successful learning and also helps to save large investments in real plants. Festo Didactic offers further learning solutions in the fields of solar and wind-energy technology, electrification and water management. 9.6 Disposable gloves produced quickly and safely Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for protective equipment such as mouth and nose protection masks and hygienic disposable gloves made of natural rubber has risen rapidly. To ensure sufficient supplies of gloves, AFA Technologies offers packaging machines and automated systems for quality inspection with pneumatic valve technology from Festo. Before the outbreak of the global Covid-19 crisis in spring 2020, the production of hygienic disposable gloves was limited to the traditional rubber-producing countries in Southeast Asia. The sudden increase in demand led many countries affected by the pandemic to want to set up their own glove manufacture. This presented the Malaysian company AFA Technologies with the opportunity to also export machines and plants to Europe and North America. AFA has been developing leak-testing machines for protective gloves since 2009. Prior to this, it was common to check the gloves manually. Only fitting the gloves onto the test mandrels is done by hand now. The actual testing process is automated. The test facility achieves an output of 4,800 to 5,200 pieces per hour with only three operators. The AFA systems increase productivity and, above all, quality many times over compared to manual inspection by three employees. The systems detect holes in natural rubber and nitrile gloves, which are tested dry using air pressure and do not destroy the gloves in the process. The mandrel can be used for different standard glove sizes. The testing machine works with high-precision digital pressure sensors. Each of the 120 test mandrels is controlled by a VUVG solenoid valve. The valve from the core product range is significantly smaller and more robust than similar valves on the market, is in stock worldwide and is attractively priced. 9.7 LCM 2021 conference: Festo as industrial co-chair The 10th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM) entitled ‘Building a sustainable future based on innovation and digitalization’ (LCM 2021) was held in Stuttgart, Germany, as the first hybrid LCM conference in September 2021. The life- cycle-concept-focused LCM conference series, held every two years, has established itself as one of the world’s leading conferences on environmental, economic and social sustainability. LCM 2021 was planned and led by institutes, organisations and companies: the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP, the German Sustainable Building Council and Festo. As industrial co-chair, we presented the perspectives as a holistic company with concrete energy-efficiency topics through digitisation in a central session. We were also able to draw on our existing network and chair sessions on topics such as ‘Green, lean, digital’ and ‘SDG Corporate Responsibility’. In total, more than 600 academics and practitioners from over 40 countries participated online. www.lcm2021.org 9. Impact on our customers and society Photo: © AFA Technologies 84 85 Festo SE & Co. KG Sustainability Report 2021 Festo SE & Co. KG Sustainability Report 2021
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