Thermwood Corporation: CNC Innovator

Posted by Jason Susnjara on Wed, Jan 06, 2010

Tags: Thermwood, CNC, CNC Routers, 3 Axis, 5 Axis, Technology, aerospace, Wind Energy, Ken Susnjara, energy digital, cnc innovator, 3-D volumetric compensation, GSA

This article is also available to view here

 

Thermwood Corporation, always on the cutting edge of technology, is now taking its CNC expertise to new markets

Written by Militza Richard & Produced by Shaheen Mohammadipour

The Thermwood Corporation has never been intimidated by technology. Founded in 1969 as a plastic molder for wood-grained parts for the furniture industry, the company developed their own CNC tool in the mid 1970s.

"We ended up building the first CNC control system ever offered commercially," says company founder and CEO Ken Susnjara. The company developed its own operating systems and evolved their CNC routers into a very powerful and capable system.

Used to cut, trim and shape a wide variety of materials including wood, plastic, composites, foam, honeycomb core and non-ferrous metals into either flat or three-dimensional shaped products, CNC routers have changed the face of the machine industry. Thermwood is the oldest CNC router company in the world and the only CNC manufacturer in the country with a GSA certification.

With customers ranging from NASA to Broadway, Thermwood offers a wide variety of systems, in both three and five axis configurations in a wide range of sizes. The company has also become a major international player with operations across the globe.

NEW MARKETS

For many years, Thermwood Corporation has been extremely successful focusing on three key markets: woodworking, plastics and aerospace. However, the company has recently begun expanding into new markets, such as the growing wind sector.

"We've made a huge number of changes in the downturn," says Susnjara. "We've revamped marketing, targeted the wind energy market, and created some new machines. We didn't pull into our shells. You have to go out there and get the business."

With Ken's son Jason Susnjara heading up the marketing department, Thermwood Corporation has embraced online marketing and begun attending new tradeshows, opening doors into new business sectors.

"We had a traditional marketing plan that had worked well for us, but over the past few years we have begun embracing electronics and becoming internet savvy. It's worked rather nicely. By spreading out our marketing we have been able to pick up business in new sectors," says Ken Susnjara.

Entering these new markets has been essential as the economy continues to struggle. "The biggest trends are our competitors going out of business," says Susnjara. "We are in a dozen markets in 35 countries, and we would have never believed they would all dip at the same time."

But the company has taken the down time to revamp and is now excited about the future. "As the economy recovers we will be much stronger," states Susnjara. He believes the economy is turning around and is excited that more and more companies are beginning to adopt CNC technology.

IMPROVED MACHINES

As Thermwood enters new market places, the company has also developed larger, more accurate machines. However, one problem with large machines is the head alignment. Ensuring accuracy comes with a high cost.

To solve this problem, Thermwood has employed 3-D laser systems to measure the exact position of the head everywhere in the working envelope. They then developed technology that allows their CNC control to take this data and compensate for any machine error.

This system cuts down on the cost, making it practical to build larger machines. "We have sold 60ft machines and with the new system we can run the Z axis into the 10-12ft range," explains Susnjara.

As Thermwood continues to improve its systems, its technology continues to become more accurate and easier to use. For example, mounting a fixture used to be a task that could take hours of painstaking work, but Thermwood's new technology can transform the program to match the fixture instead of the other way around, cutting out hours of work.

"Things that used to take a lot of time and skill are now being handled in the control," says Susnjara. "Once we discover the needs of a client, we can generally come up with a way to meet those needs better than our competitors. We can offer the machines for 1/3 less money with specs that are better."

Thermwood hopes to apply this technological savvy to the growing wind sector. Susnjara says the company has programs in place with leaders in the industry and is excited about the "unique technologies they will be able to bring to the industry."

STRONG RELATIONSHIPS

Thermwood is able to offer flexible technological solutions to its clients thanks to the hard work and skill of its employees. "We get pretty good folks. This area has a strong work ethic and skilled people," says Susnjara.

In fact, he says many of the people who were with the company in the beginning are still there today. Their very first employee just retired last year, and many employees are second generation. And while there have been layoffs and pay cuts due to the economy, Susnjara says that in a normal year a turnover rate of 1 or 1.5 percent is bad.

Thermwood also cultivates long-term relationships with its vendors and distributors. Having been in the same business for so long, they have maintained great relationships with all of their vendors. "We have a philosophy that everyone needs to make money. We don't squeeze our vendors. It's better to create relationships where you support each other," says Susnjara.

Similarly, the company has worked with many of its distributors for 20 or 30 years. Many are now second generation.

FACTS AT A GLANCE:

Company Name: Thermwood Corporation

CEO: Ken Susnjara

Operations: Thermwood is the oldest CNC router company in the world and the only CNC manufacturer in the country with a GSA certification

Established: 1969

http://www.thermwood.com

 

 

Thermwood's Model 90 - "The Beast"

Posted by Jason Susnjara on Wed, Dec 23, 2009

Tags: Thermwood, CNC, Composites, CNC Routers, 5 Axis, Model 90, High Performance

A & C Products had sent us pictures of their new Thermwood Model 90 nicknamed "The Beast".  They machine a wide variety of materials including REN, Aluminum, Plastics, Copper, Brass and other composites. They also manufacture pleated window shades for private jets.  Below are the pictures of "The Beast"

 

 

Thermwood Joins the American Wind Energy Association!

Posted by Duane Marrett on Thu, Aug 27, 2009

Tags: Thermwood, CNC, Composites, CNC Routers, 3 Axis, 5 Axis, Announcements, Trade Shows, Product Information, manufacturing, Wind Energy

We are now a Business Member of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), and will be exhibiting at the Windpower Expo 2010 in Dallas, TX (May 23rd-26th, 2010).  Make plans now to come out and see us in action.

Thermwood is a Business Member of the American Wind Energy Association

Thermwood offers 3 and 5 axis systems ideally suited for the production, fabrication and trimming of composites and other materials used in the production of wind energy products. 

For more information on our applications in this area, please visit the composite page of our CNC Routers By Applications area.

 

New web interface for 3 and 5 Axis CNC Routers

Posted by Duane Marrett on Fri, Aug 21, 2009

Tags: Thermwood, CNC, New, CNC Routers, 3 Axis, 5 Axis, Announcements, Model 90, Model 67, Model 70, Model 45, MTR, Model 41, Model 53, Model 40, Model 42

We've just completed updating and expanding our 3 and 5 axis CNC Router areas on thermwood.com. 

This new interface allows a wider variety of information to be accessed easily and more quickly than our previous version, and lists images, dimensional drawings (which can be easily printed), technical specifications, movies of the machines in action and brochures all in one convenient place.  I've included some screen shots below - to visit, please click on either:

3 Axis CNC Routers

5 Axis CNC Routers

Thermwood's New CNC Router Interface on www.thermwood.com

Thermwood's New CNC Router Interface on www.thermwood.com

 Thermwood's New CNC Router Interface on www.thermwood.com

 Thermwood's New CNC Router Interface on www.thermwood.com

 Thermwood's New CNC Router Interface on www.thermwood.com

Thermwood Production Sharing Members added to Google Earth

Posted by Duane Marrett on Thu, Aug 13, 2009

Tags: Thermwood, eCabinet Systems, CNC Routers, 3 Axis, 5 Axis, Announcements, Production Sharing, Google Earth

Thermwood Production Sharing Members Mapped in Google Earth

 A cool thing we've just completed is adding our Production Sharing Members to Google Earth.  Google Earth is a free download, and once you have it, you can click on the Production Sharing Members map of your choice and view all of the Members that list their services on an interactive map.  This tool allows you see see at a glance Members who are in your area.

For more information, please visit the Production Sharing Area our website.

About Production Sharing - This is a free listing service that Thermwood offers any of our CNC Router Owners where they can list their production services and allows any eCabinet Systems Member or other interested parties to contact these Production Sharing Members and have their jobs machined out on a CNC Router quickly and cost-effectively. 

5 Axis CNC Router at John Cox's Creature Workshop

Posted by Duane Marrett on Wed, Jun 10, 2009

Tags: Thermwood, CNC, CNC Routers, 5 Axis, Model 67, Customer, Video

The following two videos are provided by a customer of ours (John Cox's Creature Workshop - http://www.johncox.net/) in Queensland, Australia.  They show the creation of a character (Big Girl) on a Thermwood Model 67 CNC Router.  This character was used in a commercial for an Australian confectionary company.  The first video shows the making of the character and behind the scenes of the commercial shoot, and the second shows the final commercial.

 

 

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Thermwood's new "CNC Routers by Application" section

Posted by Jason Susnjara on Mon, Mar 16, 2009

Tags: Thermwood, Composites, plastics, aluminum, Nested Base, 3 Axis, 5 Axis, aerospace, edgebander, trimming, solid surface, wood carving, molds

Thermwood has added a "CNC Routers by Application" section on their home page.  By selecting the different applications, you can view examples, videos and the machines related to each application.  We will continue to add more pictures and videos to each application.

Our New Composites Advertisement

Posted by Duane Marrett on Fri, Mar 06, 2009

Tags: Thermwood, CNC, New, Composites, Advertisement, 5 Axis, Model 90

Featuring the Model 90 - Thermwood machines aren't just for woodworking.  They are also used in a variety of composite, aerospace, trimming, patterns and mold making applications as well as others.  We will be attending the JEC Composites Trade Show on March 24th-26th in Paris, France, and created the following advertisement for that industry:

Check it out:

CNC Composite Machining featuring the Model 90 

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Using FARO Laser Tracker to Perform Alignments and Volumetric Compensation

Posted by Duane Marrett on Fri, Mar 06, 2009

Tags: CNC, 3 Axis, 5 Axis, Technology, Service, FARO

We have two FARO Laser Tracker units that are in use every day at Thermwood, performing both alignment and volumetric compensation on our new CNC Router builds.  We also offer this as a service to existing customers. 

FARO Laser in use at Thermwood

Since we've implemented this technology, the amount of time required for machine alignments has been cut to less than half. What once took up to eight hours to complete can now be accomplished in approximately three.

FARO has a nice write up about the entire process here, and you can download a printable version here

If you would like more information on how this technology benefits both existing machines and new builds, please contact us.

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Straight Talk about Nested Based Systems by Ken Susnjara

Posted by Duane Marrett on Wed, Mar 04, 2009

Tags: Thermwood, CNC, Nested Base, 3 Axis, 5 Axis, Model 90, Model 67, Model 45, Cost, Service, Model 41, Ken Susnjara, Straight Talk

I am the founder and CEO of Thermwood. If you check our web site you will find a new area where we offer a comparison chart of the nested based systems available today and some "straight talk" about the systems and industry.

I'm the one that put this together because of several things that have been happening and I thought I might use our new blog area to tell you about it.

We are trying to sell nested based systems to cabinet shops and in today's world, these sales are really important. In analyzing what's going on, two things stood out. First, customers that bought our product continually tell us they are pleasantly surprised at all the things it does for them. This is good because happy customers are always good. It's bad however, because the fact that they were surprised means we did a lousy job of telling them the advantages of our offering or what they should expect before they bought.

The second thing had to do with our Model 41 and Model 67 machines. In the wood industry our dealers have been telling us we needed a lower cost machine so we developed the Model 41. In order to build a machine at a lower cost you have to take something away so we used a single side drive for the gantry and purchased, rather than built, the Z axis assembly. This meant two things as far as the customer is concerned.

First, table size was restricted to 4'x8'. This meant that when combined with our three-dimensional compensation we could get good performance and good accuracy which is difficult to do with a single gantry drive. A larger table with this arrangement wouldn't work very well. Also, the shorter stroke of the purchased Z axis meant that the rotary playback for making carved posts and legs couldn't be used with this machine. We didn't consider this a major drawback since not too many shops ordered the optional playback system anyway.

The Model 90 was a little different. We had a solid and good selling product in our five axis Model 67. It did a great job in trimming and model and mold making and was probably the market leader in those applications. Our engineers designed up a higher performance version of the Model 67 and we called it the Model 90. It was quite a bit more expensive but the extra money made it perform substantially faster and better. Our sales folks told us they didn't think it would sell because you could do the same jobs with the lower cost Model 67.

In actuality however, the Model 41 attracted a lot of customers but virtually all of them moved up to the Model 45 because of better performance and more capability. The same thing happened to the Model 90. Over half of the customers switched to the higher cost-higher performance Model 90.

These things were bothering me because of a lot of talk in the forums and blogs about the price of nested based systems. The talk and blogs and forums all acted like all these systems are the same. Just like our customers didn't know what we were offering, the industry doesn't seem to know or appreciate the difference between low cost systems and higher cost systems, both ours and some of our competitors. They don't seem to have a clue about what you get for what you pay.

This caused me to try to lay out the whole thing in a clear, accurate and honest way. Based on the two observations, perhaps if potential customers really understand everything our systems offer, they would be willing to step up to the higher price just like they did with the Model 41 and Model 90. If not, at least they would both understand and accept what they are buying for what they are spending.

I tried to be as accurate as possible with this comparison. If you find any area where the comparison is wrong, please let me know and I will change it. Also, if there is an area where you think we should add additional items for comparison also let me know. My email is ken.susnjara@thermwood.com

For comparison purposes, I do not want to include items open for interpretation. For example, I believe our service is second to none, but the quality of service is value judgment rather than a provable fact so I have left those things out. You should check out service pretty carefully before buying, however. It is very important.

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