New worlds, new tools

The signs of fundamental change are unmistakable. For example, in the first six months of 2009 China displaced the USA as the world‘s largest car market for the first time with 6 million passenger cars and trucks. In the US, the manufacturers could only sell 4.8 million vehicles. It is therefore no surprise that large international automobile groups and major automotive suppliers are making more effort to penetrate this and other new markets, to internationalize production and at the same time are joining together in tighter networks. This is also true for the LMT Group, which is strengthening its activities on Asian markets.

Changed market structures

Market structures are also changing in other areas. For example, the wind energy sector, according to VDMA Power Systems, is coping with the economic crisis significantly better than the engineering industry in general. But the VDMA says builders of wind turbines are also finding China to be their most dynamic market. This is confirmed by the foreign trade experts at Germany Trade and Invest: China doubled its wind energy output to just over 12 gigawatts in 2008 alone. The LMT Group is profiting from this boom because of the increasing demand for high performance cogs and gearwheels.

Innovative materials create new opportunities

The machining of composite materials offers an example of how technological progress is changing markets The success of fibrereinforced plastics is directly associated with the trend towards products that are lighter but have the same tensile strength in automotive engineering, in aviation and in wind turbines. Experts expect that the market for carbon fibre reinforced plastics can expect to see average annual growth of 15% in the long term, while the growth rates in industries like aerospace engineering will be much higher. This development creates great opportunities for LMT. Within the LMT Group both Belin and Onsrud are specialising in tools for processing these materials.

Tools boost efficiency of production

The ecomomic and technical dynamic is changing the role of precision tools, als well. As the latest VDMA quality management study shows, the number of companies systematically analyzing their total costs has almost doubled since 2005. Tools profit from this closer vigilance of cost and efficiency drivers, because they directly influence the efficiency of the whole production system by longer durabilities or higher cutting rates This means, the better the tools are adapted to the process of machining in question, the more efficient the production becomes. New coating technologies can be taken as an example for the potential of such customised tool solutions. While there were only some 10 coating systems on the market at the end of the 1990s, users can now choose from more than 70 different systems. Here the rule also applies that the better the coat is adapted to the application, the more efficient the tool becomes. The development of coatings and tool reconditioning are therefore central elements in LMT’s strategy. Innovations such as the Nanosphere multilayer coating for gear hobs and the Nanosphere Red coating for solid carbide cutters show how users can profit from these competencies and increase the efficiency of their production processes measurably and sustainably.

MEETING CUSTOMERS’ NEEDS THROUGH APPLICATION-ORIENTED SALES

All LMT sales activities are now being brought together in LMT Tool Systems, the new sales unit that has emerged from the former LMT Germany. The company will be pursuing a new strategy. From now on, sales will be organized in application-based units. Depending on their tool applications – from tooth cutting and die and mould making to machining composite materials or milling, turning and drilling – customers will always find specialist sales support focused on their particular field. Additionally, sales and production will be closely networked so that customers’ needs can be more swiftly met.