Thermwood says it routinely applies for patent protection on the additive manufacturing (AM) technology it develops for its LSAM large format additive systems.
During Covid, the company received electronic copies of patents that were granted, however, the official hard copies were withheld.
A couple of days before Christmas 2021, Thermwood received a package containing the official hardcopy of 32 additive manufacturing patents - a one-day record for Thermwood.
In addition to these latest patents, Thermwood already has a large portfolio of earlier issued patents covering the large format (5 x 10ft table and larger) 3D print technology it has developed. This LSAM technology is said to be the most widely used large scale additive print technology operating in industry today, and it was even used to print the tallest 3D printed structure in the world, the 92ft tall Al Davis Memorial Torch at Allegiant stadium in Las Vegas.
Thermwood offers this 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 10ft to 20 by 60ft print envelopes. The company says it is working on even larger machines.
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. Thermwood says that although it is nice to have been granted these patents, it is even nicer to finally have the official hard copies in hand.
