Festo’s New Developments: VTUX, AP, CPX-AP, and the AX/CEPE Edge Controller

A valve terminal is the manifold that groups many air valves in one block. A fieldbus is the network from that block back to the PLC, the controller that runs the machine. Festo spent the last two years collapsing three of those valve families into one platform, putting a faster internal network behind the block that talks to the PLC, and adding a real edge controller — an industrial PC, a hardened computer in the cabinet — to the AX line. If you still specify MPA-L, VTUG, or a one-off CPX island the way you did in 2022, the catalog has moved. This note is the controls view of what shipped, and what is worth changing on a US machine this year.

How to read this Product names and option modules change. Confirm flow, the IP rating (how well it keeps out dust and water), the number of valve coils, and the network node against the current Festo configurator. This is not a standards article. For OPC UA Field eXchange — a separate industry effort Festo takes part in, a newer way for controllers and devices to share one description — see OPC UA FX explained.

The useful Festo story in 2026 is VTUX plus AP plus CPX-AP. It is not a promise that every valve slice speaks a new network to the PLC.

VTUX: one flagship instead of three classics

Festo introduced VTUX as the flagship valve terminal and has been explicit that it is slated to replace the older CPV, MPA-L / MPA-S, and VTUG families over time. The pitch is not “a slightly nicer manifold.” It is one modular platform that can sit as inputs and outputs in the cabinet, as a remote block, or out on the machine in an IP65 or IP67 housing, with the same valve electronics reused across those layouts. IP65 and IP67 are dust-and-water ratings. The higher number survives temporary immersion.

Practical details that matter on a drawing:

• Mix air valves and electronics. A single valve model covers multiple functions. Analog and digital inputs and outputs, plus IO-Link modules, stack on the same terminal. IO-Link is a simple point-to-point link that lets a sensor send more than an on-or-off signal.
• How many valves fit. Festo’s own assembled example is a CPX-AP-A communications module, inputs and outputs, and valve sub-bases. Published capacity goes up to 128 valves on a terminal, depending on parallel versus serial control and a single-solenoid layout. Parallel means each valve has its own wire. Serial means they share a data link. The versions attached to CPX-AP-A are commonly quoted around 32 positions (parallel) or 64 (serial). Size the node. Do not assume the brochure maximum.
• Flow and weight. Festo quotes on the order of 670 l/min with a lighter polymer body aimed at mounting on the machine and on the end of the robot arm, not only the cabinet backplate. End-of-arm tooling is the hardware the robot carries.
• Where you put it. The terminal is meant to live next to the cylinder it feeds. That changes tubing length, how fast the air dumps, and how you split the 24-volt supplies into zones.

Through 2025 and 2026 Festo kept adding VTUX functions rather than launching a second flagship: AP communication as the default digital backbone, smart vacuum and input/output options, and energy-saving valve functions. Their UK product comments still point to more VTUX features in 2026. Treat VTUX as a living platform, not a frozen 2025 catalog item.

Festo AP: the network behind the connection to the controller

Festo AP (Automation Protocol) is the internal real-time link between VTUX electronics, AP nodes, and CPX-AP remote inputs and outputs. Real-time here means the data stays on a fixed schedule. It is not a replacement for EtherNet/IP or PROFINET on the PLC. Those are the plant networks Rockwell and Siemens machines already use. AP is how Festo stops every valve slice from needing its own adapter back to the controller.

Published AP figures to use in a design review (always confirm on the current datasheet):

• Data rates on the order of 200 MBaud
• Cycle times down to about 250 µs
• Process image on the order of 2 kB in / 2 kB out
• AP-I for decentralized nodes; AP-A when the comms node docks to a functional unit

The startup claim that actually saves hours: AP-based modules can appear to the controls engineer as one IP address on the host controller. That can let you ask for a smaller block of signals in the PLC and stop giving every island its own network node. It also means the electrical drawing has to show the AP daisy-chain or star clearly. Technicians will troubleshoot AP first and the plant network second.

Power is part of the layout. AP modules support one central supply or a supply per module, and separate voltage zones. That is how you isolate air dumps, tool changers, and emergency-stop sections without carving the air valves into three unrelated terminals.

CTED: a third way onto the host bus

The compact CTED multi-protocol node is the “do not stock six different network end-plates” option. It hangs on the VTUX and speaks the common industrial Ethernet hosts without a full CPX-AP-A stack in front of every island.

• Protocols Festo lists include EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, EtherCAT, CC-Link, and Modbus TCP
• Connection hardware options include M8, M12, or RJ45
• There are Basic (parallel) and Performance (serial) variants. Serial is the one that carries richer diagnostics and sensor feedback through the terminal, instead of a simple parallel wiring of the coils

For a machine builder who ships worldwide, CTED is an inventory decision: one valve family, swap the end plate for the regional PLC. For a US plant that only speaks EtherNet/IP, it is still useful. You stop buying a unique Festo network module every time the island count grows.

Eco functions: air is the energy bill

Festo’s newer VTUX eco functions target wasted air at the end of the robot arm and at the cylinders. That is the quiet cost that never shows up in how fast the PLC scans. The published idea is pressure that follows the load and the motion, instead of leaving every cylinder on full shop air.

• Festo cites up to about 40 percent less compressed-air consumption on the pressure side when eco functions can find a lower sufficient pressure
• Vacuum and grip visibility are part of the same package: generate vacuum at the tool, see the grip, stop over-evacuating
• Decentralized mass reduction (polymer terminal on the mover) is the mechanical half of the same story

This only pays off if you measure it and set the parameters. A VTUX with eco options sitting at 90 psi because “that is what the drop is” is a modern terminal running a 1998 air scheme. Put the eco settings on the startup checklist next to the valve map.

CPX-AP-I: decentralized I/O that grew up

CPX-AP-I is no longer just “the washdown node for a couple of valves.” IP67 is the housing rating that allows that. Festo’s current platform pitch is a network interface plus up to on the order of 80 modules, with about 50 m between modules, mixing digital and analog inputs and outputs, IO-Link masters, and valve terminals on one AP line. IO-Link capacity is high on paper: several masters, up to four devices per master. Size it against the machine’s cycle time and how big a block of signals the controller can hold, not the theoretical 300-device ceiling.

Configurable 16-channel digital I/O

The CPX-AP-I-16DIO (M12 connector) module is the catalog item that removes a lot of spare-part pain. Each of the 16 channels can be an input or an output. You can ship the default 16-input map and turn outputs on in software, split 8 and 8, or drive all 16 as outputs. Selected outputs go to 500 mA for devices that draw more current. A light on each channel is the startup feature technicians will actually use.

CC-Link IE Field Basic

Festo added a CPX-AP-I network node for CC-Link IE Field Basic, the network many Mitsubishi controllers use, so the same AP input and output layout can sit on a Mitsubishi host without a translator box. Combined with existing EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, EtherCAT, and Modbus TCP nodes, the pattern is: keep the Festo layout on the machine, change only the network interface for the region. US builders who also ship to Asia should treat this as a real option, not a footnote.

Firmware and diagnostics

PROFINET AP-I firmware through 2025 added the unglamorous things that make a platform livable: pictures of the device in the web page, clearer diagnostic structures, updates to PROFIenergy (Siemens’s way of commanding a device into a low-energy state), and fixes to IO-Link calls. If you are still on a 2022 or 2023 AP-I PROFINET software image, budget a firmware update before you blame the PLC for odd one-off requests or IO-Link behavior. Acyclic means those one-off requests, as distinct from the repeating scan.

AX and CEPE: Festo as a controller vendor

Festo’s AX suite is the other half of the new stack: AX OS, built on PLCnext Technology (Phoenix Contact’s open controller software), AX Motion, AX Machine Visualisation for the operator screens, and now CEPE as the first dedicated industrial PC in that family.

CEPE is an Intel i3-class industrial PC meant for cells that mix motion and connected-device software — pick-and-place, palletising, servo presses — not a replacement for every CompactLogix on the line. Toward the machine it speaks PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, or Festo AP. Toward the plant it includes OPC UA, the vendor-neutral way to read a controller. The software story is an open store: CODESYS, Python, Node-RED, and Festo AX Industrial Intelligence for predicting maintenance, via the Festo catalog and the growing PLCnext Store.

When this is the right brain:

• The machine is already a Festo mechanical kit (handling, assembly, electric plus air)
• You want one vendor for valves, inputs and outputs, and a soft PLC — control software on the computer — without leaving IEC 61131, the standard set of controller programming languages
• You need a small computer that can store a short history of readings and publish them with MQTT, a lightweight messaging method, without ordering a second industrial PC

When it is the wrong brain: the plant standard is Rockwell or Siemens and the cell must look like every other cell. In that case CEPE and AX are an optional computer at the edge, not the controller of record. Keep VTUX and CPX-AP on the network the plant already uses.

How the pieces fit on a US machine

What to change on the next parts list

• If you are still adding MPA-L or VTUG islands on a new design, ask whether VTUX plus one AP line removes a manifold from the parts list.
• Standardize on CPX-AP-I-16DIO (or its current successor) instead of a drawer of 8-input and 8-output bricks.
• Put the eco and vacuum settings in the factory test, especially on the hardware at the end of the robot arm. The factory test is the checkout before the machine ships.
• Decide explicitly: the plant’s PLC versus AX/CEPE as the controller. Do not discover that in the panel shop.
• Leave classic OPC UA on whichever brain you chose so valve diagnostics are not trapped in a list of on-off bits. A BOOL is one of those bits. That choice is separate from Field eXchange.

What this is not

This is not a reason to rip out a working MPA terminal on a machine that has five years of spares and drawings. The cost of moving still wins. It is also not OPC UA FX. Festo’s current terminals speak AP inside the Festo block and a conventional machine network to the PLC. Open device-level FX is a longer industry program. We covered that separately.

Specify the terminal you can spare and the bus the plant can support. Then use AP so the Festo side stops multiplying nodes.

Orgenis view

For new machine families we would default to VTUX plus AP plus a network node that matches the customer’s PLC, turn on eco functions where air is real money, and put OPC UA on the controller or a small computer at the edge. We would only put AX/CEPE in the controller seat when the machine is Festo-heavy and the buyer accepts that software.

If you want the multi-vendor controller-to-controller story, read OPC UA FX. If you want a platform comparison for the PLC itself, see B&R vs Beckhoff.

Orgenis can review a Festo-heavy cell — valve map, AP topology, host bus, and air scheme — and tell you what belongs on this build versus the next revision.