Thermwood Corporation announced today the promotion of Scott Vaal to the position of LSAM Product Manager.

In his new role, Scott will be responsible for all aspects of our Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) system including product/software enhancements, potential markets and more. 

Scott is a long-standing employee with Thermwood and has held various positions with the company over the past 24 years.

Scott is married with 3 children and resides in Southern Indiana.

Thermwood Corporation a leading manufacturer of CNC routers and Large Scale Additive Manufacturing systems with thousands of installations worldwide spanning 45+ years of business.

New Re-Designed Thermwood.com

The all-new www.thermwood.com launches today, and is packed with new features to help you quickly and easily find essential information about our machines and services. 

Clean and Uncluttered Design

The new website has a clean and uncluttered design, improved navigation and functionality thoughout as well as improved access to product information and videos.

It works across all platforms and is responsive and optimized for mobile devices.

Request a Consultation

Our CNC Experts can evaluate your production needs to determine how you can reduce costs and increase efficiency. Thermwood also offers free live demonstrations of our equipment and software to qualified companies using your product details.

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.  

• Edge Banding Adjustment Ability
• Additional Shapes and Frames
• Dozens of new moldings and profiles
• A Cut/Line Editor to quickly and easily create lines and arcs
• A complete line of Vertical (Murphy) Wall Beds

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 Some Of Our Customers...

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Thermwood Corporation is pleased to announce that Sam Collins has been appointed as a Demonstration Technician. 

In his new role, Samuel will be overseeing CNC solutions for customers that range over a wide variety of applications that include programming and operating various CNC machining centers. 

Samuel was a Thermwood field service technician for over 2 years with CNC experience. 

Samuel is engaged to be married and resides in Southern Indiana.

Thermwood Corporation a leading manufacturer of CNC routers and Large Scale Additive Manufacturing systems with thousands of installations worldwide spanning 45+ years of business.

Thermwood Corporation announced today of the promotion of Patrick Dauby to Manager of Demonstrations and Software Sales. 

In his new role, Patrick will be responsible for managing and scheduling Thermwood’s Customer Demonstration facility and overseeing CNC solutions for customers that range over a wide variety of applications.  He will also be responsible for software sales. Patrick has held various positions within Thermwood and has accumulated over 6 years of CNC experience. 

Patrick is married with their first child due later this year and resides in Southern Indiana.

Thermwood Corporation a leading manufacturer of CNC routers and Large Scale Additive Manufacturing systems with thousands of installations worldwide spanning 45+ years of business.

Thermwood Corporation is pleased to announce that Logan Heeke has joined Thermwood as a Demonstration Technician. 

Logan will be overseeing CNC solutions for customers that range over a wide variety of applications that include programming and operating various CNC machining centers. 

Logan is married with three children and resides in Southern Indiana.

Thermwood Corporation a leading manufacturer of CNC routers and Large Scale Additive Manufacturing systems with thousands of installations worldwide spanning 45+ years of business.

Latest Cut Ready Update Summary

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

Included in this update is the ability to adjust edge banding thickness as well as a variety of new shapes and frames, moldings and the addition of a cut line editor to help you quickly create jigs, modified parts and more. 

Edge Banding Adjustments

Adjusting edge banding thickness on your projects is finally here!  Simply tell the Cut Center the thickness(es) you want, and the affected parts will automatically adjust. 

New Shapes and Frames

We’ve added even more shapes and frames to the Cut Center, including a few requested by our customers.

Moldings Updates

Some moldings have been reworked for better results, while others are brand new.  The Cut Center can not only makes straight moldings, but arched as well.  if you have a molding you would like us to add, please contact us and we can add it to the next update.

Cut/Line Editor

Need to modify a part slightly…or just move the machine around?  How about make a quick jig?  Now you can.  Instead of using a hand router, you can use the Cut Center.   

Simply use the onscreen controls and draw where you want the machine to move.  The Cut Center will guide you through the steps. 

About the Cut Center

The Thermwood 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 video below shows the process of creating a 3D printed boat hull pattern (from which fiberglass boat hull molds are made), on a Thermwood LSAM. 

Click for More Information on the process

This achievement was the result of a collaborative effort between Thermwood Corporation,Techmer PM and Marine Concepts.

The tool was printed slightly oversized and then trimmed to final net size and shape using a Thermwood’s large scale additive manufacturing (LSAM®) system.

It was made from Techmer’s Electrafil© ABS LT1 3DP, which has proven ideal for marine tooling applications when processed using LSAM print technology. The entire print, assembly and trim process required less than ten working days to complete. After the printed and trimmed tool was coated and finished, a fiberglass mold was produced using the printed pattern. This effort clearly demonstrates the feasibility, practicality, economics and advantages of using additive manufacturing in the production of boat tooling. 

The final tool was printed in six sections, four major center sections with walls approximately an inch and a half thick and a solid printed transom and bow, which were pinned and bonded together using Lord plural component urethane adhesive before being machined as a single piece on the Thermwood system.

A cooperative effort between Thermwood Corporation, Applied Composite Engineering (ACE), Techmer PM and Purdue University’s Composites Manufacturing and Simulation Center has produced a composite helicopter part using a 3D Printed Polysulfone (PSU) mold.

PSU mold printed and machined on a Thermwood 10'x20' LSAM®

Final Part from mold (oil drip pan for a Chinook Helicopter)

The Details

The mold was printed from Techmer supplied carbon fiber reinforced material and trimmed on Thermwood’s Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM®) machine. ACE produced a production part from the tool in an autoclave using normal production processes.

Despite the fact that Polysulfone appears to be an ideal material for this application, the participants believe this is the first time PSU has been 3D printed, since it processes at temperatures and requires torque levels above those needed for normal polymer extrusion.  The extruder and print head on Thermwood's LSAM machine has been specially designed for ultra-high temperature, high-torque operation.

3D Printing Mold on Thermwood 10'x20' LSAM®

The part, an oil drip pan for a Chinook Helicopter, was molded in an autoclave at 275^oF and 90 PSI. The printed mold held vacuum without the need for special coatings other than normal mold prep and release. With a Tg (glass transition temperature) of 372^oF the participants believe that this particular PSU formulation may be able to process parts at up to 350^oF which is adequate for about 95% of composite parts processed today. Additional tests will be performed to determine the suitability and durability of this material at this temperature. They also plan to evaluate Polyethersulfone (PES) which processes and operates at even higher temperatures.

The PSU mold and resulting part were displayed at the recent AM2017 Additive Manufacturing Conference in Knoxville.

Comparison vs Traditional Methods

Another interesting aspect of this collaborative effort is that a mold for the same part was built by ACE using traditional methods and the cost and build time was compared to making the same tool using additive manufacturing. The results were stunning.

The Results

Additive manufacturing material cost was 34% less and it required 69% fewer labor hours. Build time for the additive tool was 3 days versus 8 days for the conventional tool. If the part was larger, a support structure would be needed for the conventional tool which would add two days and more labor hours to the conventional process. A larger additive tool would not require a support structure.

The goal of this collaborative effort is to develop materials and processes to efficiently and reliably 3D print production composite tooling, capable of operating at elevated temperatures in an autoclave. These first successful results may indicate that they are very near reaching that goal.

Collaborative partners on this project

Applied Composites Engineering – Composites is their business focusing on aerospace. With nearly thirty years in the industry they have shown core competency rarely found in a company their size. This combination of capability and experience provides their customers with the benefits of a larger company supporting more sophisticated projects and larger production along with the speed and flexibility of a smaller enterprise.  

Purdue’s Composites Manufacturing and Simulation Center – Their primary focus among others is to develop a comprehensive set of simulation tools that connect composites from their birth in manufacturing to predicting their useful life. They predict and measure the anisotropic deformation that occurs in printed elements, including a description of anisotropic element shape change during deposition in order to anticipate performance of the printed element.

Thermwood Corporation – Pioneer in CNC development, first company to build and sell a CNC router has moved aggressively into developing and building large scale additive manufacturing systems and industry leading software. Its LSAM (L-Sam) system prints and trims large to very large molds and tools that are solid, virtually void free and able to sustain vacuum without secondary coatings.

Techmer PM - A leading manufacturer of high-performance custom compounds used in the plastics industry, they seek to deliver value-added, breakthrough solutions to the OEM and processing communities worldwide. Working extensively with the additive manufacturing community they have developed materials ideally suited to the additive manufacturing process and have wide-ranging experience with additive manufacturing technology.