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.   

Latest Update Summary

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

Included in this update are suggestions/recommendations from current users, along with several updates features. 

Resize Width/Depth on Corner Cabinets

We now offer the ability to resize the width and depth of Corner Cabinets.  This works for both the Cut Center's standard Frameless and Face Frame cabinets.  When you enter in different values, the software will show you the front opening dimensions.

Now Turn Air Assist On/Off

Air Assist helps with locating sheets of plywood onto the table by creating a “pillow” of air underneath the material (this works very much like an air hockey table).  However, this requires a vast amount of air, which could potentially affect other machinery in your factory.  We’ve added the ability to turn this Cut Center feature Off if needed.

New Run Screen Interface

We have also redesigned the Run Screen which gives Cut Ready a sleek, cleaner look while running your jobs. 
Bonus:  We’ve also added more information to this screen such as:

• Total Job Time
• Current Sheet Time (a widely user-requested feature) 

Save Shapes Jobs

Another user request is the ability to save "Shapes" jobs.  Prior to this update, there was no way to re-run a previously entered "Shape" job.  We've now added this ability.

Manually Check for Updates

Much like your smartphone, Cut Ready always notifies you when there is an update available (free for the life of the machine.)  Updates usually include new/better functionality and additional content for you to make.  Cut Ready automatically checks for updates approximately every six hours, and now you can manually check yourself whenever you want - from the About section.

Boxes Added to Cut Ready Library

Of all the things Cut Ready offers, we missed a simple one.  Boxes.  Offered in a variety of construction methods, we now offer boxes, stackable boxes, boxes with handles, cubes, vertical or horizontal grain, etc. for you to make.

Patches/Fixes

Certain circumstances can cause ANY software to malfunction.  In addition to adding more benefits to you, we also try to identify any issues and address them asap.  Below are the latest patches/fixes with this update: 

• Fixed - Blind Dado Undermount Drawer Boxes were calculating the back capture hole incorrectly when choosing them from the “For Something Else” selection. 
• Fixed – When using Off-Fall for a Job, the Sheets page displayed an incorrect number of Off-Fall / Added Sheets. 

Suggestions Wanted

Do you have a great design idea? Want to see something added to Cut Ready? Let us know! We are always looking to improve the functionality and ease of Cut Ready, so we appreciate all user feedback.

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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Latest Update Summary

We are constantly adding new features and abilities to the Award-Winning Cut Ready Cut Center.  Our latest update adds improvements for existing Furniture Items currently standard on the Cut Ready Cut Center.

Included in this update are suggestions/recommendations from current users, along with several design changes. These changes will result in better nesting and handling of material thickness changes made by the user.

Below are the collections/items that were improved in this latest update:

Floating Bedroom Collection

This is a collection of unique contemporary bedroom furniture that appears to float above the floor without visible legs or support. It presents a simple elegant style that compliments any contemporary setting.

Office Collection

This is a collection of stylish, attractive adjustable sized office furniture for the home or small business.

Closet Collection

This is a collection of components designed for the modern elegant closet, but with applications in many different areas.

Drawer Boxes

We've also improved some aspects of Cut Ready's Dovetail Drawer Boxes.

Entertainment Centers

This is a sophisticated collection of contemporary entertainment wall systems inspired by high-end, incredibly expensive Italian designs.

Suggestions Wanted

Do you have a great design idea? Want to see something added to Cut Ready? Let us know! We are always looking to improve the functionality and ease of Cut Ready, so we appreciate all user feedback.

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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Latest Update Summary

We are constantly adding new features and abilities to the Award-Winning Cut Ready Cut Center.  Our latest update adds a powerful tool to the Cut Center - the integration of the Cut Ready Publisher.

What is the Cut Ready Publisher?

The Cut Ready Publisher gives eCabinet Systems users a seamless way to integrate their own designs into Cut Ready! 

• Simply open the Publisher from within eCabinets, Drag and drop the designs you want to transfer to the Cut Center, and press the Publish button.
• Your designs will appear in the Cut Center under "My Content".  You will now be able to resize and cut your design just like any other Cut Ready Item.

Please visit the eCabinet Systems website to download the Publisher and eCabinet Systems update.

Watch the video below to see how easy the Cut Ready Publisher process is:

Other Updated Features:

• Standard Frameless Base Cabinets can now be resized in height, while maintaining proper Drawer Front Heights
• Standard Frameless Tall Cabinets can now be resized in height, while maintaining proper Drawer Front Heights
• Removed Merge Material Pages for simplicity
• Limited, eventual removal of Tool Verify Screen when returning from CNC Access
•  Integrated a new Stair Stringer Interface
  
  

New Stair Stinger Interface:

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. 

Thermwood Corporation of Dale, Indiana has entered into an agreement with RUAG Space to supply advanced equipment that applies RUAG’s revolutionary new insert placement technology. RUAG Space, headquartered in Switzerland, is the leading supplier of products for the space industry in Europe, while also building a strong US presence. 

Following the JEC innovation Award in Houston in 2015, RUAG Space has been able to land its first substantial order based on its insert placement technology. This contract anticipates the delivery of structures for 900 mega constellation satellites by the end of 2020.   This represents the largest mass production of satellite structures in history. 

In November, 2016 RUAG officially opened a new manufacturing facility near Cape Canaveral in Titusville (FL). RUAG Space plans to start manufacturing the satellite structures in early 2017. Comparable to an automotive chassis, this structure serves as the backbone for all other modules on the satellite. 

This new facility will utilize Thermwood’s new machining and insertion system in a 24/7 manufacturing environment. Apart from the purchase agreement for the next generation of automated machining, potting and insert machines, RUAG also signed an exclusive agreement for North America with Thermwood to provide to third parties this new platform for automated insert placement. The inserts and process licenses will be available from RUAG Space. 

Thermwood systems are used in the aerospace industry worldwide to process a large variety of applications for aircraft, spacecraft and the military. Thermwood also offers large scale additive manufacturing systems to these same industries.

About Thermwood Corporation:

Thermwood Corporation, located in Southern Indiana and established in 1969, offers both three & five axis CNC machining centers ideally suited for the production, fabrication & trimming of wood, plastics, non-ferrous metals, composites and other advanced materials.  Thermwood also offers a Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) system for 3D printing reinforced thermoplastic composite materials for producing industrial tooling, molds, patterns, masters, plugs and fixtures for various industries.  Thermwood is deeply involved in CNC and Additive Manufacturing technologies and development, incorporating a high level of smart control technology in its products. 

About RUAG Space:

RUAG Space is Europe’s leading supplier of space products to the industry. With 1,200 people employed at 10 locations in Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, Finland and the USA the RUAG Space Division achieved some total sales of 310 million Swiss Francs in 2015. RUAG develops and markets internationally sought-after technology applications in the fields of aerospace and defense for use on land, in the air and in space. 55% of RUAG’s products and services are destined for the civil market and 45% for the military market. The Group is headquartered in Berne, Switzerland. It has production sites in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Australia and the USA.  

Thermwood PH50 Head Successfully Tested

After recently announcing our line of LSAM (large scale additive manufacturing) machines, Thermwood has now built and tested a high output version of our PH Series composite thermoplastic 3D print head.

At a print rate of 500 lbs/Hr, our newest and largest print head, the PH50 is more than three times faster than even our current PH15 print head (which we believe is currently the highest output composite thermoplastic print head available).  

The Thermwood-designed PH series print head uses three servo drives in a unique configuration.

The advantages of this new design include:

• a highly accurate print bead, the ability to change bead size while printing
• high output print rates
• better fusion between printed layers
• a virtually void-free printed structure

Thermwood has been operating the PH15 print head on the development version of our large scale additive manufacturing machine, called LSAM (L-Sam). The PH15 features a maximum print output rate of 150 Lbs/Hr when running a 20% carbon fiber filled ABS material. Our newest, and largest print head, the PH50, has been successfully bench-tested at a print rate of slightly over 500 Lbs/Hr running the same material.

A New Way to 3D Print

Fast print rates make possible all new ways to 3D print. The maximum print rate on a particular part is dictated not by the output of the print head, but instead, by cooling. When a layer is printed it must be allowed to cool sufficiently to stiffen enough to support the next layer but should not be allowed to cool so much that it doesn’t fuse properly with the next layer. This means that, although you may be able to print much faster, with most materials, you must wait at least 1 ½ to 2 minutes before you can print another layer. This would tend to make high output print heads unnecessary except for really large parts, but there are situations where this is not the case. 

At times, parts are printed as completely solid structures. When this occurs, bead length adds up quickly. A 5 foot by 5 foot solid layer requires 375 feet of bead length with a 0.800” bead width. Even with a 125 foot per minute print speed (which is the print speed of the PH50 at full output), it will require at least three minutes to print that layer. While this is still within a good layer to layer working time, it is clearly not overly fast. 

Some parts which are printed vertically are so long that they must be printed in multiple sections which are then bonded together. With a fast enough print head and large enough table, all sections can be printed at one time rather than printing them one at a time. In this approach, you print a layer on one part, then move to the next and the next, until you have printed that layer on all the parts. Then, you return to the first part which should then be ready for another layer. You can also mix different types of parts and print them all at the same time, rather than one at a time.  With additive manufacturing technology today, this is the only way to speed up production rate. This approach makes fast print heads and large table sizes not only practical but quite desirable. 

Thermwood's PH Series Print Head Design

Thermwood’s PH Series print head design uses a servo-controlled plastic extruder with a specially designed, patented plasticating screw to heat and soften the composite thermoplastic material. It then uses a servo-controlled fixed displacement polymer pump to deliver the softened material at a precisely controlled rate to the print nozzle. This dual-servo, two-step approach to generating the print bead eliminates a variety of problems encountered when trying to use just an extruder to print and generates a highly controlled material flow rate which results in a highly accurate and controllable print bead size. 

Thermwood’s PH Series system generates a relatively large print bead, applied at high speed. The print head is slaved to machine speed so as the machine speeds up and slows down, the output of the print head automatically adjusts to keep the size of the print bead consistent and accurate. This print speed control is automatic and doesn’t need to be incorporated into the CNC print program, greatly simplifying programming. An additional feature of this approach is that the print program can vary the size of the print bead during printing, something Thermwood has found to be a valuable capability. 

Once the bead has been applied, the PH Series print head uses a unique servo-controlled compression wheel to flatten and fuse each new print layer to previous layers. This wheel is the third servo in the PH series print head and can be instructed to automatically track machine motion. 

Since it tends to squeeze out any air that might otherwise be trapped between layers during printing, Thermwood has found that this compression wheel results in superior bonding between printed layers and a virtually void free printed structure. 

Another Unique Feature

A unique aspect of this new print head design is that, unlike machine motion, the three servo drives in the print head are not machine axes. Thermwood’s print gantries have six servo drive systems, but only three of them are axes. A machine axis needs to be programmed. The servo drives in the print head have their own unique, independent, self-operating intelligent control functions, which they continuously perform without specific ongoing CNC program commands.

The CNC program simply tells them to perform their function and they do it without further specific instructions, even if those functions require them to interact with the machine program, machine motion or each other. For example, simply turn on the print function and move the machine and the print head will print the proper size bead as the machine moves, automatically adjusting for acceleration, deceleration and different machine speeds. Engage the compression wheel and it follows machine motion automatically. During printing, a delicate balance exists between the extruder and polymer pump in the print head. Achieving and maintaining this balance during all aspects of operation is also automatic. 

PH50 Successfully Operated at Full Output

Currently, the new PH50 print head has successfully operated at full output in a static position. Thermwood is replacing its 10x10 foot LSAM development machine with a 10'x20' foot demonstration machine to verify and demonstrate operation of this new head at full print speed. Thermwood believes that 10'x20' is as small a machine as is practical for this high output print head. LSAM machines are available with table lengths of up to 100 foot or more. Thermwood is confident that technology in the PH Series print heads could be used in even higher output print heads should a need ever develop.  

For More Information

The Thermwood line of LSAM machines are available now, and you can get more information and see videos of these new heads in operation here