Centred on peripheral
solutions
The LNS Group is the world’s leading provider of one-stop shop solutions for the machine tool industry. Recently the company acquired a leading manufacturer of high-pressure coolant systems, chillers and cyclonic filtration products. It has also announced its next generation of fine, compact filtration systems, the SF Compact, as Philip Yorke reports.
L
NS was founded in Switzerland in 1973 by three highly skilled engineers, who decided to design bar feeders that improved the speed and efficiency of fixed and sliding headstock lathes. Their success has since been recognised worldwide and their culture of innovation remains at the heart of all LNS Group operations today. A major milestone in the company’s history occurred in 1975 when a young and ingenious precision-machining technician, Philippe Scheurer, was developing a unique machine tool concept. Following the contractual acquisition of Mr Scheurer’s patents, LNS invented the world’s first hydraulic bar feeder. This is better known as the Hydrobar®. This system guides a rotating bar into a bath of oil, covering it in a fine film of oil. This reduces friction, noise and vibration whilst allowing the lathe to increase the spindle speed and ultimately increases significantly the efficiency of the machines. The invention proved such a resounding 142 Industry Europe
success that not only did LNS increase its turnover dramatically, but the Hydrobar® brand has become a generic term that is still used throughout the machine tool industry. Today LNS is the clear global leader in the field of machine tool automation with around 1000 employees worldwide. The engineering group operates ten state-of-the-art production facilities, which are located in North America, the UK, China, Turkey, Italy, Japan, Switzerland and more recently, Germany. To date more than 130,000 bar feeders have
