A perfect fit!

In a Q&A session, Liechti Engineering’s product manager & marketing, Dominik Schmid explains how the company’s machining solutions provide the perfect fit for setting up an efficient airfoil manufacturing production line.

Liechti, a brand of GF Machining Solutions, is one of the leaders for 5-axis airfoil machining solutions to the aerospace sector. Liechti’s milling machines are said to reduce machining times by more than 30% as a result of specific profile machining technology and specialised CAD/CAM software. This high performance is based on engineering competence and know-how for full 5-axis and dynamic machining in a variety of advanced materials.

Q) Firstly, please update me with your latest news, i.e. new product launches or an aerospace customer order.

The Liechti Turbosoft plus CAM software received new features to engineer and optimise the airfoil machining process. These innovations embrace analytic tools to optimise the process on the machine as well as geometry and tool path optimising tools.

A strong focus was set on developing new machining strategies to bring more efficiency to the processes running at our customers' side in a time where it was difficult to get investments approved for new machining equipment.

There is a new blade machining centre under development about to be announced to the market in 2022, which sets a new level of performance in single blade machining.

Q) What are the types of performance demands placed on you by your customers?

Liechti Engineering offers complete solutions to machine airfoils at lowest cost per part. Our philosophy is to start the journey with the customer by creating a common plan of what is required in time to reach the critical goal of the business case before offering the customised turnkey solution, consisting of the machining centre, the engineer machining process including the fixturing and the tooling concept. After the machine enters the production, we assist during the production ramp-up and optimise the machining process continuously, reaching more and more efficiency. With this approach, our customers are maximising their profitability with Liechti Engineering as their innovative partner in sustainable turbine production technology.

Q) What aspects of your latest machining centres are your customers particularly happy with?

Liechti Engineering is the only machine tool supplier with full dedication to airfoil machining technology worldwide. Thanks to this fact, we developed a vast experience and an incomparable expertise, which allows us to provide our customers with unique solutions to produce airfoils, such as single blades and blisk/IBR at lowest cost per part. The machining centres and the CAM software of Liechti are developed with the special dedication to engineering processes and machining airfoils.

Q) With regard to aero component manufacturing, what parts are your customers’ machine tools used mainly for?

Liechti Engineering’s machining centres are mostly used for fan blades, inlet guide vanes, turbine blades, metallic leading edges, as well as blisks/integrally bladed rotors (IBRs) and impellers out of titanium and nickel alloys from forgings, castings or solid block.

Q) What kinds of productivity benefits do your customers enjoy from the successful implementation and use of your CNC machine tools?

Liechti Engineering’s complete turnkey solutions target the customers’ critical goal. This can either be the quality, the cost per part or just the cycle time. Compared with standard machine tools, we reach more than 30% lower cost per part in production.

Q) What is the main focus area of your current R&D efforts? Are there any particular ongoing research programmes you can talk about?

There is a special focus on different services to optimise current processes in order to increase the efficiency and the profitability of running processes. Besides that, Liechti Engineering is developing new airfoil machining centres that are setting new levels of performance for the future.

Q) Do you have any thoughts on additive manufacturing, and do you plan to launch your own machine tools?

Liechti Engineering is fully dedicated to the airfoil machining business, but closely collaborating with customers and partners connected with the additive manufacturing sector. A combination of additive manufacturing technology and Liechti Engineering’s machining solutions provides the perfect fit to set up an efficient production line regarding low-pressure turbine (LPT) blade manufacturing.

Q) How much importance do you place on Industry 4.0 and the advent of ‘smart tools’ in general?

Of course, the wealth of data generated during a machining process is huge in order to gain deeper knowledge about the processes. This allows us to optimise even more our high performance solutions. Also important in the machine lifecycle is the maintenance, which can be turned into predictive from preventive, or to offer remote analytics and assistance in case of a failure to reduce the unproductive time to the absolute minimum.

Q) What do you feel are the most important assets of a company?

Liechti Engineering’s dedication and huge expertise in the specific airfoil segment could not be realised without passionate employees who strive for excellence in order to engineer a customer-centric solution which helps customers reach their critical goals. This customer-centric mindset, an incomparable experience - in combination with passionate and motivated long-term employees - sets Liechti Engineering apart in offering solutions that are beyond our customers' expectations.

Q) What differentiates your company from the competition and why should a customer choose you over your nearest rival?

Because of our niche market dedication, we offer an incomparable solution to reach lowest cost per part in production. Thanks to the efficient and customer-centric organisation, the customer experiences fast response times and assistance at the customers facility.

Q) Has this pandemic-enforced downtime allowed you to ‘reset’ and look at how efficiently you are running your businesses?

Yes, sure. It reminds us to do what we are good at and improve, day by day. Of course, it also motivates us to look closely at business areas where we possibly can offer added value. With its size and diversification, being part of the Georg Fischer Group enables us to get through such a crisis, as well as the close relationships with our long-term customers.

Q) Finally, what kind of industry landscape are we facing now that everything is getting back to normal?

A rough situation in the supply chain regarding material availability and price. Customers are hesitant regarding their proactive investments because of the insecure forecast in the aerospace sector. The planes will get back in the air – the question is when and for how long.

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