IMTEX 2011: LMT maintaining growth through innovation
The IMTEX fair begins in Bangalore, India, on 20 January. The current market situation is almost perfect for one of the largest metalworking machine tool exhibitions in Southeast Asia. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) estimates that India will increase its gross domestic product by more than 9% in 2011. That corresponds to the growth rate before the global economic crisis. Sectors such as car manufacturing, general engineering and energy production even anticipate clear double-digit growth rates. Rather appropriately, LMT – Leading Metalworking Technologies will be presenting a whole series of tool innovations at IMTEX that will enable users to achieve massive productivity increases in cutting applications. Its subsidiary, LMT India Private Limited, also aims to continue the successful growth course of recent years with these innovative products.
- LMT also participated in the last IMTEX in 2009.
The IMTEX fair will be taking place for the 15th time in Bangalore between 20 and 26 January. This is an exceptional event for many national and international industrial companies. The fair is one of the largest showcases for metal-cutting tools and technologies in Southeast Asia: over 900 companies participated in the last IMTEX in 2009 and more than 40,000 visitors attended. Venkat Sivaramakrishnan, Managing Director of LMT India, explains: “IMTEX comes at just the right time for LMT India. We have been able to increase our turnover by roughly 25% in each of the last five years. We aim to keep travelling along this growth path. That is why we are presenting a product with a unique selling point in each of our tool segments. We are convinced this will enable us to cause quite a stir in different industries, because we are helping users to significantly increase their overall productivity.”
Customer focus as a factor for success
A decisive factor in LMT India’s success, believes the Managing Director, is its Sales Department’s focus on customers’ needs: “If you use tools correctly, you will significantly improve your productivity. That’s why our experts provide users with clear-cut advice about a tool and its correct use. Working together we quickly and efficiently arrive at the best possible solutions and achieve enormous performance increases.” Additionally, the Sales Department’s close networking with LMT’s design and development specialists ensures rapid response times and solutions – for example, for the development of special tools in Indian engine production.
Above-average growth in the LMT industries
The experts say that LMT-relevant industries in India will experience above-average growth. Let’s just look at two examples. According to estimates by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, domestic vehicle sales will rise by some 12% to over 1.7 million units during the current 2010/2011 financial year. At the same time, according to calculations by the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association, India’s toolmakers can reckon with domestic sales growth of between 35 and 40% in 2010/2011. “These industries are exceptionally important for us,” confirms Sivaramakrishnan. “This is where tool systems are used in which we are already market leaders in India – for example, line boring bars for the production of large engines, high-performance hob cutters for gearwheel and gearbox production, thread rolling heads for chipless thread production as well as tool clamping and tap drilling systems.”
XChange tap drill: combined advantages
At IMTEX the LMT Group and its alliance partners are presenting new tools for these and many other areas of application. “We have used the last year to develop innovative tools that enable users to further improve productivity,” explains Sivaramakrishnan. One example of this is a new generation of modular tap drills for machining cast iron that goes by the name of XChange. LMT has connected a solid carbide cutting head to a high speed steel shaft with the aid of a patented interface in order to combine the advantages of both materials. Using XChange, LMT promises customers at least 30% higher productivity in series production than conventional high speed steel and solid carbide tools. Another LMT highlight at IMTEX is the world’s first coating for thread rolling heads, which bears the name Protec. It can also increase tool life by 30%.
New campaign for “Composite Excellence”
Additionally, the Group will be launching its new Composite Excellence sales campaign in India. This involves the pooling of know-how from LMT’s competence centres for machining composites and plastics, LMT Belin and LMT Onsrud. This field is becoming increasingly important in India. During the last four years, according to India’s Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), production of composites in India has risen from roughly 108,000 tonnes to almost 190,000 tonnes. Experts also expect annual growth rates of roughly 25%. “Because of their varied uses, composite materials are in demand in very different industrial sectors in India – from car manufacturing to wind power. At IMTEX we are presenting a series of highlights from LMT Belin and LMT Onsrud’s extensive range of tools for composite materials. These two companies have decades of experience and expertise in this field,” says Sivaramakrishnan.