Centred on peripheral solutions LNS Group

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.

LNS 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 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

been produced and delivered by LNS and over 250,000 chip conveyers installed worldwide. Through a programme of continuous innovation and strategic acquisitions, the path travelled by LNS has led the group, which is still privately owned today, to achieve a truly enviable position in the global marketplace.

New turbo boosts productivity

The LNS Group recently announced a new generation of fine filtration products when it launched its Turbo SF Compact chip conveyor. This latest conveyor from LNS leads the field with its self-cleaning filtration to 50 microns and its easy handling of virtually all materials and chip types, thus making manufacturers much more efficient. The Swiss manufacturers Precidec and Moser-Ingold were both able to optimise their productivity, thanks to the LNS turbo SF Compact chip conveyor, and to dramatically reduce their downtimes.

The new SF Compact represents the culmination of many years of product development and testing, resulting in a new generation of fine filtration equipment that offers an excellent return on investment. This is in addition to its modular design for easy maintenance and low energy consumption. The latest addition to the LNS range of filtration products has been very well received worldwide thanks to its ease of material handling, and ability to process most chip types, thus in turn optimising production hours.

According to LNS, customer feedback has been outstanding. “It’s not just a simple conveyor. The pre-filtration is a real innovation, reducing maintenance and optimising performance,” said Mr Herve Comment, General Manager of Precidec. This leading Swiss company is based in Moutier, Switzerland, and produces precision components for the watch industry, as well as for medical equipment and connectors.

The manufactured parts are used in various applications from mobile phones to defibrillators and luxury watches. Many different materials are machined in the production processes of the Swiss manufacturer. “That is why we need a chip conveyor that can handle a wide range of materials. It should also prevent the machine from jamming and increase its capacity to work in an autonomous manner. Besides its flexibility, the self-cleaning filtration of the innovative SF Compact is the main advantage for Precidec,” added Herve Comment.

Driving peripheral tool technology

Recently the LNS Group acquired the US market leader in high-pressure coolant systems, ChipBlaster Inc. This will significantly leverage its sales and service network globally. ChipBlaster’s technologically advanced products will continue to be marketed on a worldwide basis. A common thread running through both companies is their goal of helping manufacturers to optimise the efficiency of their machine tools to improve performance, productivity and profitability.

ChipBlaster’s president Greg Antoun said, “We’re excited to join the LNS family. Both companies continuously advance machine tool peripheral technology, create products of the highest quality, and focus on customer needs, so this will not only be of great benefit to each organisation, but also to the customers we both serve.”

LNS offers an unrivalled range of engineered peripheral product solutions along with the industry’s most experienced technical staff. It can therefore implement, integrate and support all aspects of manufacturing automation in order to maximise productivity and improve a customer’s return on investment.

expanding product portfolio

“For almost 50 years, the LNS Group has developed innovative machine tool peripheral equipment and made a name for itself as the leading bar feeding and chip management system specialist in the world. In the last decade, the company successfully transformed itself into a true one-stop shop for the machine tool industry, offering an ever expanding range of machine tool peripherals and services.

Different models of the Fox filtration systems have also been added by LNS engineering teams to meet a variety of new industrial requirements and solve a broad range of pollution problems in its customer’s facilities. The company’s mist collector series

Fox WS2 is compact, and can be perfectly integrated into the machine tool and offers the ideal solution for metal cutting applications, whereas the Fox WM series is designed for the simultaneous collection of multiple machine tools and very large machine tools where considerable airflow is needed. n

For further details of the LNS Group’s innovative products and services visit: www.lns-europe.com