LT Machines

How TEAMwork helps LT Machines to stay competitive

LT Machines Ltd designs and manufactures heated vacuum presses mainly for the aerospace industry. The company has installed machines across the globe and is proud to count Boeing, Hitco, TATA, Emirates and other major airlines and third party maintenance shops amongst its customers.

LT’s competitive edge lies in their experience, expertise and innovation. To ensure that the company maintains these qualities, LT Machines upgraded its CAD system to NX from Siemens PLM Software, supplied and supported by TEAM Engineering.

Christian Bridgland, Design Director at LT Machines explains, ‘we used to design in AutoCAD, but as many of our machines were built to customer requirements, that meant a lot of design time. Moving to 3D with a seat of SolidWorks made a difference, but as our machines started to grow in size and complexity, Solid Works really started to struggle with reliability – and with the handling of large assemblies.’

Christian knew that things had to change, but a big investment was required and the company needed to feel confident that they were choosing the right program with the right support that would fulfill their needs. Christian is clear, ‘it wasn’t until I spoke to TEAM Engineering that I felt I was going to get this with NX.

‘TEAM were the first people that really showed me what NX could do and proved that I could take that step. Now we have NX, we find that a lot of our customers use it and like it and are pleased that we are using it.’

The results of using NX were clear, as Christian explains, ‘it was so much better and more reliable that I could not subject others within the company to using SolidWorks when I was using NX!

‘We have now moved fully to NX and have recently bought a 3rd seat. Quite simply, it’s a pleasure to use.’

LT Machine’s use of NX now extends to simulation, using NX Nastran to test designs before they commit them to manufacture. ‘I design the model in NX,’ says Christian, ‘I click just one button for Advanced Simulation, mesh it up, add all the constraints and loads and run the simulation…that’s all there is to it!’

LT Machines is a small but growing company, and, as Christian points out, ‘there is a full order book with constant pressure on delivery times and having NX takes the worry out of that side.’