With a global presence, LMT Tools handles a number of arms under the Group. They are a specialist in gear hobs, rolling heads, customising the milling of cast steel non-ferrous metals and other hard-to-cut metals, and precise component machining, among others. Vivek D Kumthekar, General Manager & Business Head (MTS), LMT Tools India, explains that for Industry 4.0 to succeed, there is a need for reliable tools, which have to perform consistently.

 

Kindly brief us about your company and products and services offered by it.

LMT Tools encompasses the manufacturing companies LMT Belin, LMT Fette, LMT Kieninger and LMT Onsrud. At the same time, LMT Tools belongs to LMT Group, a family managed holding company. The Group bundles several, leading technology companies with more than 2,200 employees at 20 locations worldwide. At international production, sales and service locations, the more than 1,200 employees at LMT Tools develop a wide range of precision tools – all the way down to the customer-tailored design of complex solutions. Our portfolio does not only cover tools, but goes above and beyond to include things like cutting materials and a wide array of services. 

LMT Belin is a highly-specialised supplier to the automotive and aerospace industries. The company has been a part of LMT Tools since 2001. It is in the development and production of tools for high-performance plastic, development and production of tools for composite materials and a specialist in producing tools for light metals, reaming tools and customised tools. LMT Fette is one of the global leaders in the production of gear hobs for cogs and rolling heads for thread production. Within LMT Tools, LMT Kieninger is the specialist for especially complex cutting operations. They develop and produce customised tool systems and tools for die and mould making. LMT Onsrud specializes in carbide milling cutters, focused in particular on the high-speed machining of aluminium, plastic and composite materials.

 

What is your opinion about the Indian machine tools industry, in general, and metal cutting sector, in particular?

With increasing industrial production, the machine tool industry is in the growth phase. Same applies to the cutting tool industry, however, this is also coupled with increasing competition.

 

How do you serve the metal cutting sector in India? 

LMT Tools offers a large range of cutting tools for various operations in metal cutting such as gear hobbing, thread rolling, tapping, milling and so on. We also offer special applications in the automotive industry, aerospace industry etc. 

 

How is the demand for your products? What do you think is driving this demand?

The demand for our products is on the rise. Our ability to offer tools for increasing productivity and giving solutions for critical applications is helping us to garner higher demand.

 

What are the emerging trends that are being observed in the metal cutting and machine tool accessories segments?

The trend is towards multi spindle and multi axis machining process.

 

Do you also serve the automotive and auto component industry? If yes, then tell us about your plans to tap the automotive and auto component industry in India?

The automotive and auto component industry form a major part of our customer base. To cater to them, we manufacture gear hobs and endmills in our state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Pune. As mentioned above, we focus on tools for productivity increase and tools for critical applications which helps us to tap the growing demand.

 

With Industry 4.0 round the corner, how is the industry preparing for it?

For Industry 4.0 to succeed, we need reliable tools which will perform consistently. Hence, the improvement in cutting tool materials, coatings and geometris is very important. There are continuous efforts by the tool manufactures to improve these areas.

 

Kindly brief us about your products/technologies/services that will be showcased at IMTEX/ToolTech 2019.

We are displaying products for gear hobbing, thread rolling, special automotive applications, tapping, die mould milling, composite milling etc.

 

Share your thoughts on IMTEX/ToolTech 2019.

IMTEX /ToolTech 2019 is the biggest expo in India which brings together the users and manufacturers of cutting tools and machine tools. The participation in the show always helps us to meet existing and prospective customers, and introduce them to 

new products.

 

Are you going to launch any new product/technology/application at IMTEX/ToolTech 2019? If yes, then what are they?

We are launching many new products and they will be displayed during IMTEX. Some of them include the tangential evoline thread rolling system, which is made using 3D printing technology. Apart from that, we also have Copy Max, which is the world’s first double-sided ballnose insert and self adjusting fine boring tools with wear compensation and position sensors.

 

What are your future plans for the growth of the company? 

We are already manufacturing gear hobs and endmills in Pune for our customers which would help us to grow in the market. We also offer tools for critical applications and for high productivity solutions which help us to grow in the market.