New For AWFS 2017

Experience the award winning Cut Ready Cut Center at the AWFS Show July 19th thru 22nd in Thermwood's booth #9200.  New for AWFS 2017 are "Single Pass MDF Doors" that offer a wide variety of door styles and profiles. 

The Cut Ready Cut Center also includes a number of new control features making it even easier to use.  No programming--no learning CAD/CAM or CNC code--just tell it want you want to make, load the material, and let it make the parts for you!

Single Pass MDF Doors using Diamond Tools

(tooling may be purchased on www.thermwoodwebstore.com)

We now offer the ability to create single pass MDF doors using diamond tooling. This feature offers the following benefits:

• Letting you create Single Pass Doors much faster versus Multi Pass Doors.
• You can choose to leave the inside corners as a radius, or have Cut Ready clean them out automatically.

Choosing Muti-Pass or Single Pass Doors in the Cut Center is easy

Click to view MDF Door with Corner Cleanup Video

Easily Create Radius or Mitered Inside Corners

MDF door with mitered inside corner shown below

MDF door with radius inside corner shown below

Easily Choose Your Profiles

The Cut Center can also help narrow down which door to use by selecting only the profiles you want.  The matching drawer fronts are automatically shown. 

Frameless Uppers now have both Flush Bottom Doors and Overhang Doors

Another new added feature is the addition of both flush bottom and overhang doors to frameless uppers.

Flush Bottom Doors in Cut Ready

Overhang Doors in Cut Ready

Verify Tooling Screen Easier to Use

The Verify Tooling interface has been updated to be easier to use and more specific (only displaying mandatory tools).

Cut Center Now Monitors Tooling Used During CNC Access

We've also made the Cut Center even more accident-proof.   It now monitors any tooling changes made while in CNC Access.  If you forget to change a tool back or if you changed something in the tool table, the Cut Center will automatically verify those tools prior to cutting.

Try out the award-winning Thermwood Cut Center for yourself at AWFS 2017!

The 2017 AWFS Show (July 19th-22nd) promises to be an exciting opportunity to visit Las Vegas and see the very latest technology from Thermwood!  Like the award winning Thermwood Cut Center (make virtually anything a cabinet shop would want to make - with no programming) and the powerful and versitile Model 45 with a pod system (machining solid wood, plastic and aluminum).

See just how easy it is to use the Cut Center

The Thermwood Cut Center will be in action during AWFS 2017.  You'll have the opportunity to see just how easy it is to run this new machine.  Just tell it what you want, and it makes it...it is that easy! 

We'll be demonstrating live during the show, and you can be part of it by helping to operate the Cut Center.  Please visit our booth (#9200) and speak to a Thermwood representative to get your hands on this exciting machine!   More Info

About the Cut Center 

The Thermwood Cut Ready Cut Center is an exciting alternative to traditional CNC routers for making a wide variety of products including cabinets, closets, furniture, doors, drawers and much more.  Just tell the machine what you what to make and it does it...it is that simple!  NO programming is required. 

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The Thermwood Mobile App now has a new feature - the ability to view your Thermwood CNC router through your web cam. 

This is a convenient way to watch your machine remotely. 

How it Works

You set up your own web cam (must be an SSL enabled camera for security), and host it on a web page you control.  Then, inside the Thermwood app, you can enter in the address of your camera feed (on your hosted page), and access it through the app.

Click Machine Cameras to bring up a lising of all accessible cameras in the app

Listing of all added cameras and link to add additional cameras

Add a new camera by entering in a name and web address to your hosted web cam

More Details

This feature is not designed to be used as a remote management or operation tool, only as an access point in the app that points to the host of your choice.  It is only designed to be used as a viewer, not for remote operation of your machine.

Recommended Camera

Thermwood recommends the Axis P5514 PTZ Camera, but any SSL enabled camera that you can host on your site should work.  Note:  Thermwood will not be able to provide technical support on your camera or hosting platform, only on our app.

Thermwood Demo Center Web Cam View

Try out the award-winning Thermwood Cut Center for yourself at AWFS 2017!

The 2017 AWFS Show (July 19th-22nd) promises to be an exciting opportunity to visit Las Vegas and see the very latest technology from Thermwood!  Like the award winning Thermwood Cut Center (make virtually anything a cabinet shop would want to make - with no programming) and the powerful and versatile Model 45 with a pod system (machining solid wood, plastic and aluminum).

See just how easy it is to use the Cut Center

The Thermwood Cut Center will be in action during AWFS 2017.  You'll have the opportunity to see just how easy it is to run this new machine.  Just tell it what you want, and it makes it...it is that easy! 

We'll be demonstrating live during the show, and you can be part of it by helping to operate the Cut Center.  Please visit our booth (#9200) and speak to a Thermwood representative to get your hands on this exciting machine! 

Solid Wood Machining on the Thermwood Model 45

We will also be demonstrating solid wood, plastics and aluminum utilizing a pod system and a horizontal aggregate on our Thermwood Model 45. 

The heavy-duty Model 45 is designed for a variety of functions including the machining of rotary operations when equipped with our optional C-Axis.  This expands the capability of this already useful machine to include volutes, carvings, chair parts, stair components in addition to cabinets, solid wood, millwork, phenolic, display fixtures and much more.  This high-performance three axis CNC router is available in either single or dual spindles, multiple table sizes and many other options as well.

Thermwood Model 45 Videos (including machining HDPE plastic sheets):

See at AWFS 2017:

Both of these machines will be on display and cutting live at AWFS 2017 (July 19th-22nd) in Booth #9200 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  Make plans now to visit us and see this exciting new technology in person! 

Thermwood has taken a major step toward its goal of 3D printing autoclave capable tooling from high temperature carbon fiber filled thermoplastic materials.

As an added benefit, Thermwood believes it will soon produce molds and tooling that function properly under vacuum in a heated, pressurized autoclave without the use of any type of coating to seal the printed tools. 

50% Carbon Fiber filled PPS Panels Tested by Fleet Readiness Center

50% Carbon Fiber Filled PPS Panel Printed and Machined on LSAM

Working toward this goal, Thermwood engineers have printed 50% Carbon Fiber filled PPS panels on its LSAM additive manufacturing machine that held vacuum to an industry acceptable level in independent testing. The test was conducted by the Fleet Readiness Center, FRC-East, located at MCAS Cherry Point, NC under a previously announced Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) partnership, and the results met FRC-East acceptance criterion that the bag must not lose more than 2 in Hg over 5 minutes.  

View of LSAM PPS Sample with Vacuum Bag

Previously, other unaffiliated companies have tested actual tools printed by Thermwood from 20% Carbon Fiber filled ABS and have also found that those tools held vacuum to an acceptable level without the use of any sealer or coating; however, the ABS material is not suitable for high temperature applications. 

LSAM ABS Demonstration Part showing as printed (rough cut and finished surfaces) 

Vacuum Bagging Test on LSAM ABS Demonstration Part at Fleet Readiness 

Despite that, several parts have been made from those tools under vacuum at room temperature and at slightly elevated temperatures. Thermwood has also already printed a 50% Carbon Fiber filled three dimensional PPS mold which has not yet been tested. Thermwood’s goal is to produce molds that will be used in a production autoclave, molding finished parts suitable for actual end use. 

Thermwood's Additive Printing Process 

Thermwood’s additive printing process differs fundamentally from conventional Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printing. Most FDM processes print parts by melting and extruding a relatively small bead of thermoplastic material onto a heated build platin that is contained within a heated chamber. The heated chamber keeps the extruded material from cooling too much before the next layer is added.

Thermwood machines print a large bead at such a high rate that a heated environment is not needed. It is basically an exercise in controlled cooling. Print speed is adjusted so that each layer cools to the proper temperature just as the next layer starts to print resulting in a continuous printing process that produces high quality parts. Thermwood believes this fundamentally different approach produces superior parts. 

Thermwood's Patent Pending Compression Roller 

One other feature that Thermwood engineers believe helps produce solid, void free parts, is a patent pending compression roller that follows directly behind the print nozzle, flattening the bead while fusing it tightly to the previous layer. 

More About LSAM

Thermwood’s large scale dual gantry LSAM machines both print and trim parts on the same machine. They are programmed with Thermwood’s LSAM Print ^3D slicing software, which is rapidly becoming the most capable additive manufacturing software in the industry.

The LSAM and its software operate within Mastercam and are specifically designed for near-net-shape, rather than net-shape printing.

It works with most major CAD file formats including virtually all solid, surface and mesh formats. Thermwood maintains a continuing software development effort to continuously improve, enhance and expand its features and capabilities.

Thermwood is proud to announce Lyssa Smiddy and Gabriel Fehribach as our scholarship recipients for the Class of 2017.  This year, Thermwood has increased the annual scholarship to $2,000.  Since the introduction of these renewable scholarships, Thermwood has awarded over $200,000 to students wishing to further their education. 

Thermwood would like to congratulate all seniors of the Class of 2017 and wish them the very best in their future studies and endeavors! 

Current Problems When Assembling Cabinets in the Field

Creating the components of your cabinets is one aspect of the job, but you also need to be able to assemble them quickly and correctly.

Many cabinet shops manufacture cabinets at one location and then assemble and install at another (the customer's home, etc).  When you flat-pack an entire kitchen's worth of cabinets so that it stacks neatly, it can quickly become confusing and frustrating to then put everything together correctly in the field.  

First, Sorting the Parts For Each Cabinet

A typical nested based job consists of hundreds of parts representing perhaps dozens of cabinets, all intertwined into a series of nests.  Your first task is to separate the parts into individual cabinets.

This is normally done by placing labels on each part. Each label has a text statement with the cabinet name. Simply read the name and sort the cabinets by those names - sounds easy, right?

Not So Easy

While this sounds simple, it actually takes quite some time. You must read each label on the stacks of parts you are sorting to find the matching names for each cabinet (this can be a problem if your worker(s) don't read or speak English). This reading also takes time and parts sometimes have similar names so mistakes can be pretty easy to make.

The Solution

Time is money, and Thermwood has the solution to save you both in the form of our Patented Assembly Marks and Color Coded Labels.

Color Coded Labels Speed Up Sorting Time

Thermwood’s approach prints a color bar on each label with a different color for each cabinet. (put the red parts with the red parts and the green parts with the green parts, etc.). This simple idea allows you to sort cabinets two to three times faster. This offers a significant productivity improvement. 

Bar Codes for Remaking Scrapped Parts

Each label also has a unique bar code that can be scanned to remake any damaged part(s) easily and quickly.

Assembly Marks Speed Up Assembly Time 

Thermwood's Patented Assembly Marks are a significant productivity improvement when it comes to actually putting the cabinets together. Simple cabinets are not all that difficult to assemble, but as cabinet designs become more complex, with fixed partitions, shelves or other features, determining exactly how to assemble the parts can become difficult.

Generally you must create and print assembly drawings, and sometimes even with these drawings, the process of sorting out the structure can take significant time.

How Assembly Marks Work

Thermwood’s approach machines unique assembly marks into each joint to define which parts mate together. These marks are hidden once the parts are assembled.

Non-Skilled Workers Can Easily Assemble Cabinets

Assembly drawings aren’t needed and in fact, totally non-skilled workers can easily and quickly assemble even the most complex cabinets.

One shop owner asked his cleanup man to assemble a cabinet as a test. This totally unskilled “cabinetmaker” assembled the cabinet quickly and accurately with no drawings or instructions. For most jobs this represents a significant productivity improvement that could rival the machining process itself. 

The Bottom Line

Thermwood's approach can save you significant time and money through the use of Assembly Marks and Color Coded Labels to improve your accurancy and productivity when sorting and assembling your cabinets out in the field. 

New Print Head Design for LSAM

Thermwood Corporation has unveiled a new design for the print head on its large scale additive manufacturing machines which it calls LSAM, (pronounced L-Sam). This new “Universal” design print head can be equipped with any of three interchangeable “Melt Cores”.

The print head is large by industry standards, being over 10 feet long and weighing one and a half tons, but despite the size and weight it moves at speeds up to five feet per second. The print head is designed so that the “Melt Core”, which consists of a feed housing, extruder and polymer melt pump, can be changed should higher or lower print rates be required.

Universal Print Head Installed on LSAM Development Machine

Thermwood has installed a universal print head on its current 10’ x 10’ LSAM development machine with a 40mm Melt Core and has successfully printed composite tooling masters from 20% Carbon Fiber filled ABS, and has printed actual autoclave tooling from both 50% Carbon fiber filled PPS and 20% Carbon Fiber filled Ultem using this print head. 

LSAM is DIfferent Than Other Thermoplastic 3D Printers

The print head is a critical element in Thermwood’s additive manufacturing process which functions differently than other FDM thermoplastic 3D printers. Most thermoplastic additive manufacturing systems print with a relatively small print bead onto a heated table in a heated environment. The heated environment is needed to keep newly printed layers from getting too cool to properly fuse with subsequent layers.

In Thermwood’s approach, the only heat source is the print head itself. A heated environment isn’t required. The process prints a large bead at such high output rates that the printed layer must be cooled rather than heated to achieve the proper layer to layer fusing temperature. The entire process is essentially an exercise in controlled cooling and produces large size, high quality, virtually void free printed structures.

Each layer is printed at a rate that allows it to cool to the ideal temperature before the next layer is applied. If the layer becomes too hot, print speed is reduced to allow more cooling time. If it becomes too cool, print speed is increased to reduce cooling time. 

Real-Time Thermographic Image Display

A built-in thermographic imaging system displays a real time thermal image on the CNC control screen which aides the operator in achieving and maintaining the ideal print temperature during the print process.

Temperature Control Module Integrated into LSAM

The LSAM Universal Print Head can process material at temperatures up to 450^oC. It uses an electronic temperature control module integrated within the print gantry CNC control, allowing full integration of temperature and pressure control with exclusive features of Thermwood’s print gantry CNC control, better supporting processes unique to 3D printing.

Three Melt Core Choices for LSAM

Thermwood offers three melt cores for its print head, each with a different maximum print rate. The maximum print rate determines the longest bead that can be printed during the available cooling time between layers.  This cooling time varies depending on material, amount of fan cooling and geometric shape of the layer, but the faster the print rate the more material that can be laid down within the cooling time between layers, so faster print heads allow larger parts to be printed, but don’t really print parts faster.

Fastest Printing With LSAM

Even the standard 40mm LSAM melt core is generally so fast that it must be slowed on most parts to keep from printing a layer so fast that it doesn’t have sufficient time to cool properly between layers. In this case, often multiple parts can be printed in the same time it takes to print just one.

The LSAM machine is equipped with a standard 40mm Melt Core which includes a patented 40mm high speed extrusion screw coupled to a corresponding melt pump and deposition head. This standard configuration processes over 200 pounds of material an hour, depending on the specific material and is suitable for parts that have a print layer lap length of up to 200 feet while printing a standard bead that is .200 inch thick and .830 inch wide. This configuration has proven more than adequate for virtually all large parts today.

If even longer layer bead lengths are required, higher output Melt Cores are available. A 60mm Melt Core can process 50% more and a 70mm Melt Core has operated at rates of over 500 pounds per hour, which Thermwood expects to increase.

The fastest speed at which a part can be printed is determined by the cooling time required to reach the proper bonding temperature between layers and not by the output of the print head. Larger print head outputs simply allow larger parts to be printed within the cooling time between layers.

High output melt cores do, however, have a minimum operating speed so may not be suitable for smaller parts. If both small and really large parts are required on the same machine, the melt core can be changed from one size to another in less than a shift. 

New 10'x20' Demonstration LSAM Under Construction

This print head will be installed on a new 10’ x 20’ demonstration machine currently under construction at Thermwood. Production machines come standard with the 40mm Melt Core.

Thermwood’s LSAM machines both print and trim on the same machine using separate gantries. The new approach to print head design adds even more flexibility.

LSAM Produces Solid, Void-free Parts

Using this technology, Thermwood has been able to produce large tools that are solid and void free enough to maintain vacuum without sealing or surface coating. This simplifies production of the tool, allowing accurate machining of the surface without having to deal with distortions that might be caused by variations in the thickness of a coating. 

Print and Trim on the Same Machine

Thermwood offers a line of dual gantry additive manufacturing machines which both print and trim parts on the same machine. These machines can be up to 100 feet long with print head output rates from 150 to 500 pounds per hour.  

The Thermwood LSAM is used to produce large to very large sized components from reinforced thermoplastic composite materials.

Although suitable for producing a wide variety of components, Thermwood is focusing on producing industrial tooling, masters, patterns, molds and production fixtures for a variety of industries including aerospace, automotive, foundry and boating.   

The Thermwood Cut Center is all about saving you time and money, using an easy to operate and sophisticated combination of software and machinery that you can feel confident in.  

We've taken the fear out of automation by combining our easy to use interface and years of experience in the industry to create a powerful tool that will allow you to focus more on your products, business, making money, and worry less about being intimidated by the technical details.  Your time is money, and the Cut Center helps you save more of both.

Below, find out just what makes the Thermwood Cut Center so special and profitable:

1. Huge Product Line From Day One

The product offering on the Thermwood Cut Center is extensive, and constantly growing.  It includes cabinets, closets, furniture, doors, drawers, moldings and much more, and the sizes can easily be changed with no programming.

With a Cut Center, you can:

• Make your products with little effort
• Make your competitors products with little effort
• Expand your current offering to other profitable products with little effort
• Profit from an ever-expanding product line with no programming

We can also help you develop custom libraries for your specific product(s) in the size range and material you want and install them in your machine.   

2. Virtually Instant Start Up

It is likely you will be in full production with a Thermwood Cut Center in about a half a day.

A typical CNC router can take as much as six months to program and get to that point. A half a day or a half a year? There is serious cost associated with that half a year. 

With the Cut Center, it is all figured out for you, and from Day One you get:

• No programming
• No extensive training required
• No tooling to figure out and buy
• No cutting parameters to figure out 

3. Feel Confident That the Details are Taken Care Of

The Thermwood Cut Center is engineered and programmed by experts who have taken all of the worry and headaches out of the equation.  This gives you the confidence and peace of mind to focus on what is important - making money!   You can concentrate on your product (its configuration, material and dimensions), as well as marketing and growing your business. 

All the technical knowledge needed to make the machine work is already in place and invisible to the user - no new technical skills are necessary. You simply select what you want to make, right at the machine, and it makes it.

Running a Cut Center is much easier than a typical CNC router:

• It manages tools for you
  • Figures out which tools to use for each job
  • Figures out proper cutting speeds
  • Tracks tool life
• It recovers from problems easily and smoothly
  • Easily remake damaged parts by simply scanning a label
  • Recover from broken tool(s) without scrapping parts
  • Easily recut a defective sheet
• It manages maintenance
  • It tells you when to clean filters
  • It tells you when to lubricate
  • It easily connects you to a service tech if you ever need more help 

4. Constant Updates and Additions

We are constantly adding new libraries, features and capabilities to the Award-Winning Cut Ready Cut Center.  

• Resize width/depth on corner cabinets
• Turn air assist on or off
• More efficient run screen interface
• Ability to save Shapes jobs
• Ability to manually check for updates
• Variety of boxes added to Cut Center library

5.  Also Operate As a CNC Router

You can also operate the Cut Center system as a CNC router in the traditional manner, running programs generated with virtually any CNC software. 

It is simple to switch between operating as a CNC router and operating as a Cut Center to assure that all machine parameters are properly reset and that the standard Cut Center tooling is properly installed, checked and ready to run. 

6. With Other CNC Routers - Programming Required?

Every CNC router, regardless of price, has one thing in common..it must be programmed. You will need a CNC programmer.  You will also need an operator with knowledge of tooling, feed speeds and holddown.  

This programming and operating knowledge takes a lot of time and experience to master. That can be time away from running your machine and making money.   

7. Other CNC Routers - Not So Cheap After All

A typical CNC programmer will cost you more each month than the payment on a Thermwood Cut Center, which does not need CNC programs or CNC programmers.

So, even if a machine was FREE, it would still cost you more than a Thermwood Cut Center, and in a few years the Cut Center payments go away while your programmer costs most likely will go up. 

When you consider everything, a cheap router isn’t so cheap after all. In fact, some CNC router manufacturers will charge 3-5 times more for spare parts and service.

In these cases, the manufacturers plan is to double or triple their profit over 5 years through spare parts and service.  This is why the initial cost of the CNC router is cheaper.

9. Absolute Commitment to Your Success

Thermwood is committed to you and your success.  We want you to love your new Cut Center, and for it to help move your business to the next level.  

We have the best service and support in the business, and help is available with a push of a button on your Cut Center.  We also have free phone, email and forum support.   In addition, we are available to help you create custom libraries for your projects to quickly get you going.   

10. Powerful Testimonials From Our Customers...

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