Thermwood Receives 32 Additive Manufacturing Patents as an Early Christmas Gift

Posted by Duane Marrett on Tue, Jan 04, 2022

Tags: Thermwood, Announcements, Local Motors, Thermwood LSAM, Patented, Boeing, Navair, Al Davis Torch, General Atomics

Thermwood routinely applies for patent protection on additive manufacturing technology it develops for its LSAM large format additive systems. During COVID, we received electronic copies of patents that were granted, however, the official hard copies were withheld.

A couple of days before Christmas 2021, we received a package containing the official hard copy of 32 additive manufacturing patents. This was certainly a one-day record for Thermwood and a welcome sight!

Thermwood Receives 32 Additive Manufacturing Patents

In addition to these latest patents, Thermwood already has a large portfolio of earlier issued patents covering the unique, large format (5x10 foot table and larger) 3D print technology it has developed. This LSAM technology is currently the most widely used large scale additive print technology operating in industry today. It’s used in a wide variety of industries including aerospace, transportation, heavy equipment, foundry and large decorative structures. It is being used to produce a diversity of products including aerospace patterns, molds and tooling, heavy equipment foundry patterns, bus chassis, large valve body foundry patterns and trim tooling. It was even used to print the tallest 3D printed structure in the world, the 92 foot tall Al Davis Memorial Torch at Allegiant stadium in Las Vegas.

Al Davis Memorial Torch Printed on Thermwood LSAM

Thermwood offers this unique patented technology on a wide variety of equipment, the largest, most diverse product offering of its kind available today. It includes a broad selection of machines, including single and dual gantry, fixed and moving table configurations, with both print-only and print-and-trim systems, from 5 by 10 foot to 20 by 60 foot print envelopes. We are working on even larger machines but that’s for another day.LSAM offers the broadest line of large scale additive systems available in the market today

Boeing Navair project

The primary focus of the patented LSAM technology is to reliably and repeatedly produce the highest quality, best fused, most homogeneous printed structures possible from a variety of reinforced thermoplastic polymer composites including those intended to operate at elevated temperatures. Although it is nice to have been granted these patents, it is even nicer to finally have the official hard copies in hand.

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