Modern, high-performance materials make road vehicles safer, aircraft lighter and engines more efficient. Machining materials such as high-strength steels, alloys of aluminum, magnesium and or titanium, plastics and composite materials nevertheless places the highest possible demands on the tool technology.

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The boom in wind power generator construction continues, and presents particular performance challenges to tool technology. LMT Fette has assembled a range of tools particularly tailored to the special requirements of wind power.

"Full halls, with customers in more of a mood to invest”. This was the assessment the Association of German Machine Tool Manufacturers (VDW – Verein Deutscher Werkzeugmaschinenfabriken) gave in a current press release to METAV 2010.

There are fundamental technical and industrial changes affecting our everyday life, but that occur out of sight. One example is the use of materials in the construction of an aircraft. A glance at the status of tool development at LMT Belin in this field illustrates the technical challenges associated with this.

The trend in the construction of motor vehicle engines has held constant for years. "Downsizing" is surely the word: the engine capacity may be getting smaller, but more power is being delivered – and fuel consumption is falling at the same time. The efficient, high-precision machining of turbocharger casings is therefore something in which designers are increasingly interested.

Motor vehicle production in the Czech Republic must, of course, react to the international crisis by reducing production. Deliveries by Czech component and part manufacturers are also falling. As a manufacturer of pulleys, E.C.J. is well aware of the difficult situation – and has already reacted successfully: application of the Pentatec indexable insert from LMT's alliance partner Boehlerit has significantly reduced production costs.

With the help of more efficient production processes, manufacturers and suppliers in the aircraft construction sector hope to create a competitive advantage in a difficult market environment. Process improvements are focusing on tooling benefits due to tool cost and efficiency drivers. Longer tool life and faster cutting speeds have a direct effect on the efficiency of the entire production system.

There is a good reason why the "EXPERIENCE CENTERS TURN & MILL" is becoming a user-oriented experience for visitors in Bielefeld and Shanghai: users can experience here, live, how their own, complex workpiece is machined from the raw material to finished part within one day. Very different tools from LMT and from Paul Horn GmbH, appropriate for each application, are used for this.

Cooperating with LMT UK, Brinksway Tool, a British supplier of tools and moulds for the aerospace industry, has examined the milling strategies it applies to the production of moulds for making components out of composite materials. As a result, machining times have been reduced to five or six hours. In the past, a cycle of this sort took up to five days. 

It is now a good two years since LMT's alliance partner Bohlerit presented the world's first nano-layer for cutting materials. Since then, "Nanolock" has stood for the successful combination of hardness and toughness in indexable inserts that yield significantly longer service lives and higher cutting speeds for turning. In the further "Nanolock Black" development, Boehlerit's engineers have now extended their innovation to milling steel.

From selection of the right tools, through the development of a machining strategy, and on to setting up various machine tools: the entire manufacturing process is always at the heart of the seminars held at the LMT Academy. The new program is now available.

They are up to three meters long, and have a maximum diameter of 200 mm: line boring bars from LMT Kieninger. This high-tech tool is indispensable for the special holes needed when making large diesel engines. In India, about 60 of these special tools are now in use at large companies in the commercial vehicle industry.

The importance of microsystems technology is steadily growing – and with it the demand for appropriate tools for milling these complex components. This naturally also applies to medical technology used in diverse applications. Professor Dr. Diethard Thomas, head of the LMT Academy, answers five questions on this increasingly important subject.