Liebherr-Aerospace has installed at its machining plant in Campsas (France) a new five-axis machining centre with a Rotary Loading System (RLS) that enables to store parts clamped on pallets. The RLS automatically provides the machining centre with raw parts and therefore allows unmanned production.

The high capacity machine has been jointly developed by teams of Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH, Kempten (Germany), a leading specialist for automation solutions, and Liebherr-Aerospace Toulouse SAS, Liebherr's centre of excellence for air management and cooling systems.

The new machining centre features a six-wheel tool magasine, which contains 363 cutting tools. It is equipped with a 52 kW/430 Nm milling spindle that can rotate at 12,000 rpm. In addition, an IoT connector package enables real-time monitoring of the equipment and remote maintenance. The RLS can lift up to 1.5 tons, stores up to 15 work pieces in its cell and guarantees autonomy as well as production flexibility with different control modes.