Thermwood ES82 Upgrade with MachMotion Control

Regal Plastics is a US manufacturer with locations all over the South and Midwest. From interior décor to food displays, manufacturing parts to signage, Regal Plastics has a diverse product offering across many industries and types of plastic material. They also pride themselves on their approach to work and team building with their company motto, “work doesn’t have to suck.”

In the spring of 2021, Regal Plastics commissioned MachMotion to do a complete turn-key control upgrade of a hefty Thermwood ES82 CNC router. While it’s a well-built machine, it was having control issues and interrupting production. The MachMotion engineering team designed a complete kit for their machine including new CNC control, pre-wired electrical enclosure and new Yaskawa servos for all axes of the machine. The project also set out to improve the efficiency of the machine by including a new carousel style tool changer in the design. To work with the ATC, MachMotion would have to replace the original heavy spindle motors with a new 20 HP HSD spindle with an automatic pneumatic drawbar.

After the inspection and design part of the project, production, assembly and testing began on the new control system. Then, 3 MachMotion technicians went onsite to perform a complete turn-key installation.

On day 1, the MachMotion decommissioned the old control and took off all original motors and cabling. They also began on the installation of the new servo motors on the machine. On day 2, they finished installing the servo motors, ran all cabling and mounted the new spindle motor. On day 3, the did most of the electrical work. They also mounted the fixture for the tool changer and powered up the machine for the first time! Day 4 was when the techs did most of the control programming including servo and spindle calibration, setting up all of the input and output signals and programming the tool changer. By day 5, the mechanical, electrical and control work was all finished. So, the MachMotion team trained the Regal operators, programmers and maintenance staff how to run and maintain the new system. They also ran their first part before the MachMotion team left the facility!

Regal Plastics is the hero in this story. They had a CNC machine that needed repair. Rather than scrapping or selling the machine, they had the vision to restore the machine and give it a second life. For less down-time and less cost than buying new equipment, Regal Plastics made sure that production never stops on their machine. Let MachMotion do the same for you as you think about the repair of your CNC machine.

See the running machine here: (link to website an/or YouTube of the machine)

Check out our router packages here.

Other MachMotion upgrades for Thermwood Machines:

Thermwood Model 40
Thermwood C53
Thermwood M45
Thermwood CS45-510
Thermwood 43
Thermwood CabinetShop 43
Thermwood 40
Thermwood CS45
Thermwood 82
Thermwood CS41
Thermwood 53-510
Thermwood 63
Thermwood C-40
Thermwood 80ES
Thermwood C-42
Thermwood CS-40