Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: We're sensing everything. Everything from tiny medical pills that go in a blister pack all the way to full size pallets.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Hello everyone and welcome to the Robot Industry podcast. My name is Jim Beretta and I am your host. And I've got two guests today from Leutze and Chris Round. Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who Chris Round is and why you're on the podcast today?
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Hey Jim, thanks for having us. Chris Round, I'm the global business development manager with Leutze and I've been in the industry now for plus years, from conveyors to robotics to feeders and now I'm in this wonderful German company called Leutze. Happy to be here, thanks for having us.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Kojo, can you introduce yourself and again tell us why you're here?
[00:00:52] Speaker A: My name is Kojo Leutze, currently a BDM business development manager and key accounts for packaging and intra logistics. Been in the industry since 2011. I have a computer science, electrical engineering background. I think we're here to talk sensors today and how it impacts the automation world.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: And Kojo, whereabouts are you located?
[00:01:12] Speaker A: I am actually in Milwaukee. You guys know Siemens and Rockwell? I'm in Rockwell's backyard.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: So I'll ask the first question. Who is Leutze?
[00:01:20] Speaker C: Yeah, Leutze is a company founded in Owen, Germany 1963 and we have well over 1600 people. If you Google it, I'll bet you see right around 250, 270 million in sales. So very large company in the States. Our headquarters is down in Duluth, Georgia. We do have five product production locations and we do have three tech centers aside from the other offices and certainly a lot of other distributor offices around the world.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Thank you for that, Chris. And my next question is for Kojo. What, what is a sensor? And if I open one up, what will I see?
[00:01:57] Speaker A: I guess the easiest way to explain a sensor is maybe liken it to the human body. You have a brain, then you have your senses, like sight, touch, smell. So a sensor is kind of like your senses that basically feeds information to the brain. In this case that would be the plc, the programmable logic controller of the operation in the automation world. And so it gives all that information, whether we're sensing, using light, sound waves, electromagnetic waves, or contact, to detect items and objects, and then basically transmit that, including data, to the plc. You know, when you open one you might see like chips, see some lenses, mechanical adjustments. Depends on what type of sensor it is. Pretty cool stuff. Lots of electronics buried in there.
Once you Open it up.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Why are people so interested in sensing today and is there a trend?
[00:02:52] Speaker C: Let me start and I'll let Koja wrap this up. You know, equipment in the past used to have a few limit switches and now it has dozens of distance, safety and vision sensors. But I'll let Kojo add a little bit more.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: We're sensing everything, everything from tiny medical pills that go in a blister pack all the way to full size pallets of packaged products and even human beings for safety purposes. So, you know, a lot of these facilities have equipment that can be dangerous. And so we're sensing human beings in the safety world to avoid things like say, like an industrial robot from crushing a human being. So we're sensing everything so that things run smoothly and we can get production items on schedule.
[00:03:37] Speaker B: So how is Leutze different?
[00:03:39] Speaker C: Say, you know, we're the best kept secret in the industry as we continue to grow our business in the market in the region. That's what we're hearing. And we're known as the sensor people. So we have thousands of products, most of them no one knows about for us. You can see us at the Pack Expo. You can find us at. We wrote Modex Pro Mat. We just got back from the robot summit, so we're out there. We're looking forward to heading to Automate this year, but Kojo can take it from here on.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Yeah, as Chris said, we have a lot of generic technology like everyone else in the sensor industry does, optical solutions to inductive Prox switches. We also have a lot of unique technologies that differentiate us from everyone, what everybody's offering out there. So good example in packaging would be clear material sensing solutions. That could be a tricky one. We have some really highly engineered solutions that can detect clear glass, clear bottles, clear material very reliably. When you come to intralogistics world as well, we have some unique sensors, highly capable, like our very long range distance sensors can go up to 300 meters, direct line of sight. For instance, we have a product called a barcode positioning sensor.
Basically we have a barcode tape that can go out to 10,000 meters and we're able to position precisely on this barcode tape along anywhere in the 10,000 meters, precise to 0.15 millimeters. So pretty cool. Products that help with moving stuff in warehouses, storing them and retrieving them, that kind of deal.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: And that kind of goes along with your message, right? About safety and about efficacy and about data. So I'll be interested to chat as we get here, but I wanted to Ask you what's happening in sensing from a high level perspective, even though you've kind of let the cat out of the bag a little bit with that product introduction.
[00:05:33] Speaker C: The big trend in sensing right now is moving from the simple detection to machine perception. So sensors used to tell a machine whether something was present or absent. Today's sensors are increasingly helping machines understand their environment, make decisions and operate more autonomously.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: People want things faster and that obviously has a lot of implications. So less downtime overall. And so, you know, previously you'd have preventative maintenance schedules and things like that. We're now moving from that to predictive maintenance where the sensor is able to let you know, hey, I'm close to the end of life, so you need to change me out rather than scheduling. For those in the past, we have industrial Internet of things dealing with connectivity data and how that data is optimized for improved future results, resulting in overall, you know, less machine downtime. So lots of cool things happening, things getting smarter, you know, all these sensors getting smarter and using that data to predict future things.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Ocho, you've kind of nailed it for this. My segue to the next question, which is the question about data.
And data's so critically important. Where it like, to Chris's point, it wasn't so much ten years ago, but now everybody wants data. And so how does that merge with some of the products that you're offering and selling?
[00:07:01] Speaker A: I'll give an example with our barcode scanning solutions for track and trace. Previously you would have like the barcode scanner just read data and then give it to the PLC and the PLC goes about and does its thing with the data. Now we actually kind of break that into two where the same data, we give one to the plc, but we actually connect directly to your ERP system as well.
And we're able to send that data via things like opc, UA to the cloud and to your ERP system without bugging down the plc. So that's for improved decision making on the spot and you can tell how things are changing on the factory floor without having to store all that data and then later import it to use it. So we're able to actively send that data out to different channels and make quick decisions based on that. That's a quick example of one way things are changing lately.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: So, Chris, this is probably a Chris round question. How do people buy sensors?
[00:08:04] Speaker C: It depends on the region. We have RSMs, we have several sales in our sales team, we have a couple directors as well.
The way we look at it is either through distribution. We can, you can buy direct, but it really is up to the rsm. The key here is that no one realize that our equipment, our products are, we can ship literally within as short as. I mean the longest ship dates we have are just maybe a couple weeks.
So that's something that's really exciting for me to see with the company. But I think you're seeing a dependability from us because we're getting shipments from Germany twice a week. So there's a constant flow of product coming in.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: We also have a, I think we have a web shop.
So lots of flexibility for different types of customers to be able to buy from us through the web shop if you need something quickly and it's available or through our distributor partners all around
[00:08:58] Speaker B: who are buying your sensors, who do you sell to? Are they machine builders or end customers? Are they manufacturers?
[00:09:05] Speaker C: We're about 60% end users, 40% integrators, OEMs just kind of give you that balance, that breakdown.
Interlogistics, material handling industry is a primary along with packaging. As I said earlier, think Modex, think Promet, the packaging industry. So pmma, machine tool, automotive lab are certainly where we sell. But you know, when you think about this and one of the say objectives for us is to try and have our sensors in every manufacturing facility in North America. So that is a goal for us. But the primary ones are the ones that I mentioned obviously previously.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So you know, typically OEMs though, these are original equipment manufacturers. We have integrators that are putting together full lines for different end customers. And then you have a good mix of some big and medium sized end users as well. You know, that would get some items from us. So it's pretty much a good mix of all these types of customers.
Everything from the large, your large consumer goods, end users, all the way to small shops that need some sensors for basic automation as well.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: What are customers looking for? Like this is an educated cell, right? Like you have to be like, hey, you're having this problem where you're, where you want to sense something that's transparent or translucent. We've got sensors for that.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: And you know, that's what the Loyta sensors are meant to do. Differentiate in a way that we're making tasks easier. You know, customers want simple and intuitive solutions that work reliably and do not cause downtime and do not break the bank as well. So everybody's looking for equipment to run faster, more reliable and some lower cost. So I'll give you an example like in the past, there's a code reading where you have one sensor doing code reading, you have another doing like optical character recognition where you're reading text. Now you have a, you know, the same camera doing both tasks and then that consolidates things, lowers the price, but then you know, you're able to get things done quicker.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: So I assume you're, you're talking to like applications engineers, typically with machine builders or you're talking to plant managers or like who do you talk to when you make your calls?
[00:11:26] Speaker C: All the above. All the above. I mean you're talking to the plant managers and applications team. I think it's, they are used to seeing a lot of companies come through so they kind of guide you towards certain individuals. So.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So you know, controls engineers, electrical engineers, you know, even mechanical engineers lately they typically get involved in a lot of the design stuff as well. So they specify sensors as well. If you're an end user, you're probably talking to your plant managers, the maintenance folks.
And then depending on say if you're at an integrator, sometimes you're speaking to the president of these places as well. So they like to get involved.
Sometimes they're dealing with complicated solutions and they do get hands on when it comes to some of these integrators. But they are highly capable and they're able to design custom lines and systems by utilizing multiple equipment and components from us and others to make a whole solution.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: Kocho, you're kind of in the weeds, right? You're talking to the people. Are there any other trends? Are people spending more money lately?
[00:12:43] Speaker A: Harder to get consistent workforce in certain manufacturing facilities.
So automating, a lot of places are automating out of necessity. There are a lot of capital projects that were on hold maybe like the past year or so, but we see more orders coming through now to our customers. Packaging industry for instance, is always strong and keeps growing. Intra logistics is seeing a bit of a bounce back as well too from a bit of maybe a slight lull in the past year, but that's I think what I've seen so far. Chris, anything you want to add?
[00:13:21] Speaker C: Continue that driving growth and vision. 3D sensing, AI assisted inspection. We need more automation is what we're hearing. More visibility, more traceability, more productivity. So we're hearing all that.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Chris, do you sell any other devices for sensing, like accessories, cables, sensor brackets, that kind of thing?
[00:13:40] Speaker C: We do.
You're going to see cables, reflectors, mounting systems, all of that equipment for sure. When it comes with our equipment, we're going to make it easy on the customer to go ahead and install.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: And as simple as that sounds, you can't really use these sensors without mounting them, without a cable, cables and all that. So yeah, we do carry those accessories and they're readily available for quick installations.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: So I'm going to ask you to get out your crystal ball here and just say, hey, like, what is the future of sensing?
[00:14:15] Speaker C: So, you know, I would say sensing is evolving. It's from a component level detection to system level perception. Customers increasingly viewing sensors as a source of operational intelligence rather than just simply inputs to a control system. He mentioned control managers, control engineers. And the market's moving towards smaller, more connected, more autonomous systems that we mentioned earlier. So there is value there, not just from detecting the physical world, but from understanding it and acting on it.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: And I wouldn't be surprised to see more AI incorporation in the near future.
I mean, there are already some AI systems in place when it comes to vision products, where you're basically teaching bad components and good components and the sensor just takes it away from there, as opposed to previously where you would have vision tools that you sit down, an engineer would have to configure that for maybe a couple hours in some complex scenarios. But now that task is getting really simplified where the AI is able to make that happen really quickly, less setup time.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: So, yeah, so sensors that are easier to install in your system actually brings down the price of sensing.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: Exactly, exactly. Spot on.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: Gentlemen, this is our pre automate edition of the robot industry podcast and I'm just wondering, have we forgotten anything or we've forgotten to talk about anything today?
[00:15:49] Speaker C: Well, the one we'll get to automate in a second. But the one really important thing that we can't ever forget about. When you're working with any type of company that does sensing, that does area scanners, you're doing light curtains, you're doing. This type of technology is safety.
Safety is at the beginning of everything we do.
And for us in Leutse, the responsiveness, objectivity and global footprint are where we have really, really good value when we do.
If you want to have a risk assessment done, we would do the risk assessment for really any cell.
We don't even have to be in the cell ourselves. It could be a competitor, it could be anyone else. We'll do those assessments. Yeah.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: So just to add quickly to what Chris is saying, we have products, we make sensors for automation, but we also have a full team of highly qualified TUV certified functional safety engineers that help you with all the safety requirements and safety standards and interpreting them so that your equipment meets the current standards. We're able to help with trainings, consultations, risk assessments, as Chris mentioned, and then also kind of full safety design of any parts that require additional help from us. So we're not just giving you a sensor or safety device and saying, hey, go figure it out. We actually can have our expertise to help out with that.
[00:17:25] Speaker C: I think a real big, or I would say important part of our business is our safety team that we have.
And one thing that people need to know is how quickly we can get to you. A lot of times we're hearing that if someone wants a radio risk assessment done or some type of assessment, it could take three months to get to get it to deploy a team out to do that. We can get out to you within weeks, maybe days.
So that is a real value.
When I mentioned global, think of it this way too. Say you have a cell here in. I live in Cincinnati, so we have a cell here.
We have an identical cell, let's just say Denmark. We can do the cell on both or do the risk assessment. Both places we're going to have the. The same content. Because we have such a global footprint, we're going to be able to share all that, that information back and forth. And that's something that's a value for us that we offer.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: No, it's a very cool part of the industry and I appreciate your comments on safety there. So let's talk about Automate. Since you're going to be at Automate, Chris, can you tell our audience and Kojo, tell our audience a little bit what you'll be showing at Automate.
[00:18:33] Speaker C: I'll let Kojo hit. Yeah, Kojo, you hit the.
You hit the cell and I'll hit the location.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. We will have a full phonic robot display simulating kind of like an actual working packaging cell. We'll have an IO link demo top showing connectivity with some of our sensors solutions. We'll have a basic sensor display as well. And then on this robot cell, we're actually going to have a number of different products showing how they interact and make things work smoothly in a robot cell. So it's going to be safety. There's going to be sensing, we'll be tracking a box, dimensioning it, and then helping the robot pick it up safely and do some cool things with it. So, yeah, feel free to come by our booth and see this in action. We can walk you through exactly what the process is like.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: Thank you, Kojo.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: And we'll be easy to find. We're going to be in Booth 1267 in the south building. So when you walk in, turn right, go straight back and you'll find us.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: And thank you both for joining me this morning. I've learned a lot, especially about some of the cool, sexy sensors that you guys are offering. Of course, Chris, if I'm a mechanical designer or an applications engineer and I want to find out more, what do we do?
[00:19:58] Speaker C: Well, obviously Lloyds.com is the first place to go and then you for, you know, for me it's chris.roundoysa.com and then Kojo can my number. I have two phone numbers, but I'll just give you the one I use the most is the 513-550-2820.
And I'll let Kojo.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: Yeah, mine's 262-328-7580.
But yeah, check us out. Loitza, that's L E U Z e dot com.
My email is a bit, bit longer, so I will leave that. My last name is a mouthful, so. But you can find me from the Loyta website.
Thanks for having us, Jim.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Yeah, awesome. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us today for the Robot Industry podcast and we will see you at Automate.
