The pressure on machine builders is mounting: shorter lead times, a shortage of technical personnel, and rising expectations around flexibility and data integration. In this context, Lenze aims to be more than a provider of automation technology.

With a combination of ready-to-use software modules, digital twins, open-source technology, and targeted training programs, the company brings the promise of ‘Robotics as a Service’ to life. It’s all about working smarter with less.

The reality of software engineering

The challenges engineers face are real and pressing. There’s a growing shortage of qualified profiles, deadlines are getting tighter, and the increasing technological complexity demands flexible, adaptable solutions. The risk of missed deliveries or excessive development costs is high. That’s exactly where Lenze FAST provides a solution.

Lenze FAST includes a toolbox – built according to the IEC61131 standard – which serves as a powerful toolkit for logic and motion programming. The FAST Framework supports application development, enabling engineers to build their machine software modularly, integrate applications, and implement them faster.

But Lenze goes beyond just logic and motion programming. The German automation specialist also provides solutions for digitalisation by processing data from PLCs and actuators. Think machine and line OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) and production logging. Additionally, Lenze FAST includes a data logging app that displays every data point from the PLC and actuators on a dashboard with a trend widget. These dashboards are easily accessible through web technology.

From programming to parameterising

What sets the FAST Toolbox apart is its focus on modularisation and standardisation. Technology modules like ‘Pick and Place’, ‘Flying Saw’, ‘Magic Track’, or ‘Basic Motion’ allow complex functions to be added to an application with just a few clicks. For robotic applications, this means that functions such as gripper control, three-dimensional movements, and load balancing no longer need to be programmed but configured.

The robot template within FAST takes it even further. “For 80% of applications, it’s just a matter of setting parameters,” says Jeroen de Hond, robotics specialist at Lenze. “Where programming used to take weeks, now half a day is enough. That makes a world of difference.”

Digital Twin as an accelerator

Another asset is the digital twin technology that Lenze uses for simulation, sales, training, and virtual commissioning. By testing the functionality of the robot application before physically building the machine, companies avoid errors, accelerate market introduction, and improve the reliability of their solution.

This virtual pre-commissioning is fully integrated into the FAST template, including visualisation. Along with the open programming environment via CodeSys, this gives companies not only speed but also control and adaptability.

Impactful workshops

To guide companies in this new automation model, Lenze offers targeted workshops. During these sessions – grouped under the term ‘Robotics as a Service’ – participants learn to practically use the FAST tools and apply them to their own case.

Marc Vissers, Marketing and Communication Manager EMEA West, emphasises the importance of this support: “Every company is different. Our approach always starts with their specific situation and goals. From there, we provide customised training and advice, with attention to topics such as modular automation, data analysis and servitisation.”

Flexibility and future-proofing

With FAST, Lenze not only helps optimise engineering processes but also supports the development of new business models. By using data smartly, companies can fine-tune their machines more efficiently and set up new revenue models like pay-per-use. The Nupano architecture – an open and user-friendly platform – allows integration of proprietary or third-party apps and keeps them up to date across the lifecycle.

Finally, Lenze continues to invest in integration capabilities. Today, robots from manufacturers such as KUKA can also be seamlessly integrated into existing production environments via the FAST template. This makes the platform ready for the next step in smart automation.

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Its commissioning and application training courses are tailored to the needs of engineers within machine and system manufacturers, to help them incorporate the latest drive and automation technology into their systems.

“These courses contain in-depth product detail, and plenty of opportunity for participants to independently extend their programming knowledge,” says Mark Turner, applications manager at Lenze UK. Examples include courses on specific Lenze products, such as the i500 inverter or i700 servo inverter.

One new course, introduced this year, is a one-day workshop on how to apply Lenze’s FAST application software toolbox to robotics applications. FAST is a way of incorporating standard technology modules into a program, accelerating the development of machine software. In this new course, delegates learn how to commission a robotic PLC-program and adapt it to individual requirements.

In addition, Lenze has developed a ‘virtual machine’ to help delegates better visualise how a particular program or design will work in practice – such as when writing software for a robotics application.

“We don’t have a pick-and-place robot on site – but you can plug into our virtual machine and visualise exactly how everything will work,” says Turner. “This helps bring the training to life.”

At the same time, Lenze offers a wide range of more basic service training. This is aimed mainly at machine operators and maintenance engineers, helping them run diagnostics and eliminate faults in specific pieces of Lenze drive and automation equipment.

While application courses are typically run at Lenze’s training facilities in the Bedford headquarters, the service courses are usually carried out at a client’s premises. This is often down to practicality, as there tend to be more attendees on service courses, “It’s easier for us to send one application engineer to a company’s facility, rather than 10 customer employees coming to Bedford,” says Turner.

Lenze also has an online training portal, accessible directly from the website to the registration system. Online courses are affordable and flexible, allowing delegates to learn at a time and pace that suits them.

Online modules are also a useful way of preparing for more rigorous training: for instance, Lenze recommends taking the ‘Robotics Basics’ online training course prior to attending its ‘FAST Robotics’ course.

While many courses are tailored to the specific needs of the customer, training is standardised across Lenze’s global sites – meaning that a course given in Germany, for instance, will be equivalent to one given in France or the UK. This is a useful resource for global OEMs – whose employees will receive equivalent training from Lenze, wherever it takes place.

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Drive technology is critical in machine building because it is responsible for controlling motion. In future, it will be even more important to make the parameterisation of motion as easy as possible. In the course of Industry 4.0, modern machines have to deliver flexible and customised outputs. To ensure that the level of complexity for designers and end-users is kept under control, Lenze has created new methods to set up and control machine drive system, including complex robotics applications.

It is a fact that design engineers want to build competitive machines. In this context, it is not only innovation, flexibility and performance that matter but also – and more than ever before – faster completion of the development work. Lenze supports this with its FAST Application Software Toolbox.

Thanks to the use of standardised and modular software, ready-made motion functions such as winding, registration and positioning can be very easily integrated into the machine control system. They can be reused with minimal effort for subsequent machines. The FAST technology modules all use the same standardised interfaces which can be easily combined in a number of ways. Software programmers have more time for development and testing of their special machine functions, while this opportunity to ‘concentrate on the essentials’ gives the company an advantage over its competitors.

But does this also apply to apparently complex robotics applications? Commissioning a pick and place application in just seven minutes – is that possible? Lenze says it is, with the complete, ready-to-use FAST robotics solutions. These are powerful pick and place modules with a fully-fledged robotics core, into which everything that the design engineer needs for fast, productive and flexible handling technology has already been integrated.

They make it very easy to integrate robot kinematics into the overall automation and motion control system. Pick and place movements can thus be easily executed by means of parameterisation and without any detailed knowledge of robotics. This massively reduces engineering time and effort for the machine builder.

Drive technology is critical in machine building because it is responsible for controlling motion. In future, it will be even more important to make the parameterisation of motion as easy as possible. In the course of Industry 4.0, modern machines have to deliver flexible and customised outputs. To ensure that the level of complexity for designers and end-users is kept under control, Lenze has created new methods to set up and control machine drives.

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In the areas of intralogistics, packing technology, assembly and material handling systems, gantry systems are mainly used for stacking and moving wood, metals, plastic or glass. The gantry units are often driven on single axes by PLC-controlled positioning drives. Lenze says a more elegant way of doing things, such as with gantry-robot kinematics and coordinating multiple axes, has not been possible up to now due to the complicated and time-consuming programming it would involve. This is exactly where the new FAST technology module comes in; it clusters the robotics together to create an easy-to-parameterise drive solution with a robotics core at its heart. This is just as easy to parameterise as a single positioning axis.

“The FAST technology module is so easy to use that PLC-controlled gantries can be very effectively replaced with sequential motion commands,” explains Lenze’s Alexander Schlegel. This has tangible advantages; soft intrinsically synchronous travel profiles result in substantially less wear on the mechanical parts of a machine than point-to-point positioning. They can also be designed to be considerably more energy efficient and operate faster with smaller drives. Thanks to the open standards used, namely PLCopen parts 1/2/4 and the IEC 61131 programming environment, FAST can be used to perfectly integrate additional drive tasks. For example, upstream and downstream conveyor drives are easy to engineer with the same controller and inverter drives from the same i700 family.

Even complex drive systems with multi-axis coordination are easy to use without any special knowledge of robot programming thanks to the prepared and intensively tested software solution. Lenze is convinced that this solution will make companies more willing to use robotics, especially in view of the fact that they considerably improve the efficiency and productivity of their plants. Thanks to the simplification of the engineering process, engineers have more time to optimise processes and the actual functions of the machines they build. All in all, this improves the competitiveness of OEMs as they no longer need to concentrate on motion control.

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Handling cash trays with high precision, the rail-mounted robot delivers the high levels of security required to handle banknotes and cash in bank vaults. The robot uses Lenze controllers, servo drives and geared motors which readily combine together to create a simple yet high-performing drive system.

The VEROX is a 5-axis robot handles trays of banknotes and cash weighing up to 50kg. It moves linearly on rails up to 30m and has a 2.5m vertical reach. Gripper arms reach out 1050mm to grasp the trays in left, central or right orientation. The trays can then be transported to a storage location or to the bank access point. VEROX is already successfully in service and there is strong interest from other European banks.

Using a Lenze drive system allowed easy integration and compact dimensions. A 3200 C DIN rail mounted controller connects by EtherCAT to servo drives of the Lenze 8400 TopLine series. These drives were developed by adding servo technology to the 8400 frequency inverters with the advantages of economy and small size. Geared servo motors with low backlash use synchronous motor technology with resolver feedback. Even with a horizontal speed of 1.5m/s, the Lenze system achieves positional accuracy of ±0.1mm. This same high level of accuracy is also achieved on the vertical and reach axes to ensure cash trays are delivered with precision.

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