LMT Fette Stays on the "Cutting Edge" by Producing Innovative Precision Tools
Change can be constant for the dynamic cutting tool industry and keeping a keen eye on technological and economic trends is an important part of product development. LMT Tools has been able to keep up with the market thanks, in part, to the automation and technology development on the ANCA machines they use to grind their tools.
LMT Tools (Schwarzenbek, Germany) is well-known for its production, sales and development of precision tools. With 1,200 employees worldwide, production and development are carried out by LMT Onsrud, LMT Belin, LMT Kieninger and LMT Fette, along with sales companies that are active worldwide. Founded in 1908, LMT Fette specializes in gear cutting, rolling, milling and threading
VIDEO: LMT Fette's precision tools bring ideas to life using ANCA's iGrind software.
"We offer an extensive range of standard and special tools and are one of the leaders in the fields of gear cutting tools and rolling tools. Our customers are mainly from the general mechanical engineering, energy technology, automotive, medical technology, aerospace technology and die mould industries, said Uwe Kretzschmann, Head of R&D at LMT Fette.
Market Trends Guide Product Development and LMT's Unique Tool Options
"Product development, and thus the entire innovation management process has a very high priority, and our development focus is of course based on market needs. On the other hand, we also look at technological and economic trends, for example the technological change taking place in the automotive industry, but also the approach of additive manufacturing, and digitalization. For the latter, for example, we have developed intelligent tools that can record and exchange data, leading the way to building a Smart Factory," explained Kretzschmann.
LMT Fette specializes in gear cutting, rolling, milling and threading and offers an extensive range of standard and special tools.
Dr. Islam Bayoumi, LMT's Team Leader, Process Optimization, points out that the market is changing very quickly for different sectors such as the automotive industry. For example, the new development of the electric motor, which is now being produced at numerous sites in Germany. There are a lot of producers for the electric motor -- not only for the motor, but also for the old mechanical parts in the car and these mechanical parts need cutting tools.
"I think a big change is to the digital cutting tools -- the tools with small microprocessors to calculate the tool life or to measure the craft or the power by the machining operations, like a milling operation or turning operation. I think this sector has a big market or the market will be changing very quickly in this direction," adds Bayoumi.
Product development for LMT tools is particularly important and the company has a range of processes to underpin this. LMT has an international product development team that shares ideas collectively and collaborates for the best possible development benefits.
ANCA CNC grinders are used for manufacturing precision cutting tools and components across a diverse range of competitive industries including cutting tool manufacture, automotive, aerospace, electronics and medical.
"The threading market worldwide is huge and we are a small player in this market but we have some great tools that our competition doesn't have," says Andreas Möller, Product Manager. "We have a USP and the patent for these tools, like HPF, our modular tools that are manufactured on ANCA machines."
Matching Machine and Software Performance with ANCA Machines
The main focus for LMT Tools is to provide a high-quality tool performance, with precision and accuracy, as well as the optimum geometry to cut the material in order to preserve the tool life as long as possible.
To achieve this goal, and to also have the flexibility to produce different dimensions of cutting tools, LMT employs three ANCA TX machines at its production site.
Engineers at LMT Fette inspect the robot handling system that works in tandem with ANCA tool grinders to maximize production.
"One of the challenges is the reduction of the manufacturing costs because of increasing material prices and the labor costs and so on. We try to keep our production costs as low as we can, and we are able to do this by using the automation options provided by ANCA," says Bayoumi. "Automation means that the operator can operate two or three machines at the same time, we use a robot system for changing the work pieces as well as changing the grinding wheels.
"At first, we test our new products using simulation and then we test live because we must also measure the outcome. The grinding software, iGrind, allows our operators to create the grinding programs efficiently and easily."
Uwe Kretzschmann confirms the suitability of ANCA machines for LMT production needs: "The ANCA machines match the requirements for the tool types that we make. They have a high degree of flexibility due to the easy automated change of grinding wheel packs. They are very robust machines and are very suitable for technology development."
"For these tool requirements, it is particularly important to use a production machine during the development process and during the production of the first prototypes. We chose an ANCA machine, because the iteration loops when producing the first tools at the beginning of the development process are possible. It is important that this can be done on a production machine," concludes Kretzschmann.
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