At the new Tech Center / MTC, Liebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH has combined its automation development and testing activities with the Liebherr Academy’s gear technology training at a single location. The facility includes hall space for development and testing, machine-equipped training areas, as well as offices and meeting rooms designed for cross-functional collaboration.

The hall space covers around 740 m², with roughly two-thirds allocated to the Automation Tech Center and one-third to the Liebherr Academy’s MTC, including two training rooms for gear technology. The building also features an office wing with three floors of meeting, training and office space currently used by 18 employees, plus flexible workstations for apprentices and students.

The Automation Tech Center used to be housed in a rented off-site facility, while the MTC training rooms were located next to production. Bringing them together significantly shortens coordination paths between development, testing, training and production. Customers benefit as well: new solutions can be developed, tested and incorporated into training more quickly. At the same time, production space has been freed up at the plant. The relocation took place in stages starting in 2025.

The automation area features both fixed installations and flexible setups for prototypes, development projects and customer trials. Equipment includes various bin-picking applications, an LHDismantle cell, a PHS 800 Allround system, the RLS rotary loading system and the LP 100 gantry loader for testing new control system generations. The systems are used for bin-picking trials and reverse engineering to generate complete tool and data sets for LHDismantle, as well as for testing new prototypes for performance and service life. The space is also used for customer visits and live demonstrations, showcasing both pre-market developments and existing products.

The MTC now has two fully equipped training rooms with an LC 280 DC gear hobbing machine and an LGG 280 generating gear grinding machine. These machines are used for training, demonstrations and, where required, testing. The comprehensive setup allows technologies and machine functions to be demonstrated directly on the machine under real operating conditions, while the new premises offer a much quieter environment for training and technical discussions.

Much of the relocation and setup was planned and implemented by a dedicated cross-functional team with one member from Automation and one from the Academy. The combined Tech Center / MTC site not only strengthens internal collaboration at Liebherr but also creates a flexible development and training environment for future gear technology and automation. Close integration of development, testing and training provides ideal conditions for customer projects and allows new applications to be tested under realistic conditions.