What do you think of Lenze?

[Cydog]

In the automation community , what do you think of Lenze ? -Service -Reliability -Programming -etc

[geniusintraining]

I like them... we don't have a lot, but the stuff we do have is trouble free

[ssommers]

I think they're decent. I had an AC Tech drive fail at about 2 weeks from the 2 year mark and they're repairing it under warranty. Don't know what caused it to fail yet, but the service people were very kind & prompt about getting me an RMA number.

[Mike Dyble]

One place I worked 6 year ago had a lot, they were never any trouble, this was over a 1 year + period(unlike the rest of the line!)

[Togadude]

Two thumbs up from me We have 8 of them in machines older than 5 years. Not a single problem yet!

[TimD]

I've visited their plant in Germany a couple of weeks ago. Lenze has a good price/performance ratio for their motion products. On our machines, we use the 9300 servo controller and the 8300 vector frequency controller.

[Clay B.]

AC-Tech's are hardy little drives. Most I have worked with are 10 hp and lower. Have a few I have installed that have almost 10 years on them now and they are still kicking. Installed one in a wash down area and with the hink sink completely clogged up with some real nasty stuff the drive was still working. Drive had a surface temp of 138 F. What I really like about AC-tech is the manuals. Easy to follow and everything seems to be where it should be. It may be that I have used them so much that I am just used to the manual but people I have trained on these drives seem to have no trouble either and feel real comfortable with the drives. Don't see that deer caught in headlights look when the guys are working on these drives. Also what was mentioned earlier. Returning a drive that has failed is pretty simple and I do not get insulted. Now Lense DC drives. If I never saw one again I would not miss it. It is probably because they are still real "german". Basically what I mean is I have to spend more time figuring things out and some of the manuals only come in german. I try to avoid them when I can.

[suby]

Regarding your question, I think that LENZE is a good solution for machine builders. You can get high quality and reliable solutions for a competitive price. The old 8200, 9300 and EPL have most of the communication buses available as an extra card, but all include CAN bus as an standard. When building machines with several small servodrives, ECS is a good option. I haven't yet worked with 8400 or 9400 drives. Someday... Regarding your points, - SERVICE: it is good (almost in Spain); - RELIABILITY: servodrives are good and strong enough. 9300 drives are strong and there are no plugg-in cards (not like CT or others) and you can cover most of the needs for machine builders; All brands have problems and nobody is an exception. - PROGRAMMING: This is the complex point. You have two options: - parameter based products with an specific firmware (positioners, standard drives, camprofiles, ...); - codesys based products (servoPLC's and EPL-10200 PLC) with libraries. When using parameter based products, you just buy an specific firmware (it's like a licence) and only LENZE is able to change it through a download. Documentation in English and German is good. Less documentation in Spanish. Programming under codesys environment is like other brands: no upload from end-device is possible. Unless for large series machine building, I don't recommend to program the EPL-10200 PLC. Just use any other PLC with CAN like VIPA 214CAN. Regards,

[ricii]

We have several on site here, hardly any problem, nice and easy to use and set up.

[stickman47]

Just now, stickman47 said:

I am in the US and we have a machine that was built in our home plant in the UK. This machine has 2, 9400's and 1, 8400. This is my first experience with Lenze Servo drives, and I say you can keep them!  Our 8400 failed due to a power surge. Lenze does not list a line reactor to match their drives. We obtained a replacement drive, from the home office, and it hasn't run in 3 weeks. We loaded the same parameter file that we were using before but the new drive faults on "ot1, Maximum Torque", whenever it is commanded. We even tried to run the drive as a stand-alone, with the same results. Service from Lenze is non-existent in the US. Over-the-phone, and E-Mail communications and suggestions have not been helpful. Lenze claims there is nothing wrong with our parameter set, it must be our wiring. I have checked the cables several times but cannot find any problem. I am sick of trying to get this drive to behave. If you are in the US I can't recommend Lenze Servo drives! 

Longevity does not equal intelligence.

[Joe E.]

Another thumbs-down from the US.  We have about 15 or so identical machines with EVS9325 drives that were built by our internal machine-builder group.  Their failure rate is WAY too high, in my opinion.  We've had 6 failures in the last year and a half or so.  To be fair, there may be an issue with the OEM's application of the drives.  We've been unable to get the Lenze software installed and working on any of our laptops, even though our machine builder group just says, "Install this program and it just works every time for us". 

So, basically, we hand the repaired drives back to the builders to program for us so they can sit on the shelf waiting for the next failure.  Just last week, we had one fail before our spare was back to us so we had to buy a new one, which was VERY expensive.

We've also had an inordinate number of failures of motor/gearbox assemblies where the holding brake fails (may also be an application error, but the builder insists that it's working properly). There is no way to repair just the brake; we have to send the whole motor/gearbox assembly back to them for repair, which is very expensive.  I don't have numbers on the brake failures since one of the mechanical guys handles those.

[stickman47]

I have two 9400 High Line drives in a servo system. Both drives failed, they were showing DC UNDERVOLTAGE. I only had one complete spare so I turned to my supplier for a second.

Normally we get our drives through the home office in the UK. These drives are supplied with Ethernet, Memory and Safety modules already installed. Since this was an emergency I needed to get moving.  My supplier only had the core drive, the Ethernet and the memory modules in stock. She had to send to Germany for the Safety modules. Everything was drop-shipped to my location.

I installed the drive and the three modules and powered up the 24v. I was able to establish my network IP address but, when I tried to download my project, I got an error about version differences between the device and my project. My supplier told me I needed the Diagnostic Adapter and the connection cable to commission the drive. This was an additional $400.00 expense. Then she told me I also needed a licensed copy of the "EASY" software, an additional $1400. I am waiting for the arrival of these items so I can get this drive operational. I have reached out to Lenze but cannot get a response. I am unable to modify the parameter, for the version, in my project.

I have been down for 6 days and my boss is up my a__. I cannot recommend Lenze at any level. At least Allen Bradley has global support and will come to your location. Lenze does not.