Less is More: Reduced Number of Variants, Smaller Size.

Lenze has developed a decentralised drive solution that is specially tailored to the requirements of horizontal materials handling systems. Coming from Lenze as a specialist in Motion Centric Automation, this mechatronic solution combines the well-known Lenze Smart Motor with the g500 gearbox series. The efficiency of the Lenze Smart Motor plus gearbox is more than 94 per cent over the entire ratio range. This enhances the energy efficiency of the machine in question as a whole. With a single version of this motor-gearbox combination, variable motor speeds with a constant torque are possible. This renders superfluous many of the different variants of such combinations that are normally needed today. What's more, the motor's speed of rotation can be adjusted with the help of a smartphone and NFC technology.

In the area of horizontal materials handling, many drive concepts now in use rely on complex frequency inverters in order to achieve a high starting torque. In contrast, the continuous torque is usually relatively low. As a result, the drives are over-dimensioned and consume far too much energy. Lenze has taken a very close look at such applications and questioned the conventional solutions usually applied in these cases. The result of this approach, which is aimed at improving the concrete application, is a smart drive package that performs its respective materials-handling tasks very precisely and effectively. This is made possible by the intelligent interaction of the components.

The Lenze Smart Motor combines the simplicity of a mains-operated motor with the advantages of an electronic drive control unit, whereby the electronics and the software are integrated in the drive and, together with the mechanics, form a single aggregate unit. Due to the freely adjustable speed, the variety of different drives in use can be reduced by up to 70 per cent as only one geared-motor version is sufficient for all tasks. Time-consuming and costly version management is thus no longer necessary, as a result of which the number of drives that the mechanical engineering company has to keep in stock can be reduced and costs can be lowered sustainably. Moreover, the operator can control the equipment with a smartphone and the use of "near field communication". The advantage of all this is that the motor's speed can be converted into torque intelligently and precisely. Due to intelligence in the terminal box, the Lenze Smart Motor can flexibly cover speeds of between 500 to 2600 revolutions per minute at constant torque. Mechanical engineering companies and plant operators can therefore profit from this carefully designed drive package in several different ways: a highly modern operator control concept, low energy consumption and thus reduced operating costs and fewer different drives with different ratings.