21 Reasons Thermwood LSAM Dominates Large Format Additive

Posted by Duane Marrett on Tue, Jan 18, 2022

Tags: Thermwood, Announcements, Thermwood LSAM, Patented, VLP, ALP, HLP, Compression Wheel

Virtually all, if not all, large format, FDM additive systems, sold to industry in the last several years have been Thermwood LSAMs.

Watch the video below to learn 21 reasons why:

 

 

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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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Thermwood's Patented Assembly Marks and Color Coded Labels Simplify Putting Cabinets Together

Posted by Duane Marrett on Tue, Jun 06, 2017

Tags: Thermwood, Announcements, CNC Router, Cabinet, Assembly Marks, Save Money, Patented, Color Coded Labels

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

Sorting parts for each cabinet can be difficult without Thermwood's Assembly Marks

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

A nest of parts with Thermwood's color coded labels.

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.

Thermwood's color coded labels.

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

Cabinet parts with assembly marks are easy to put together.

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.

Assembly marks are totally hidden when the cabinet is put together.

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. 

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