About

Brief History

Founded in 1955, by Dr. Thomas, at the request of the United States Air Force, Department of Scientific Research. Designed and built the first telemetering and beacon antennas for re-entry vehicles withstanding the high temperatures of re-entry.

Designed the antennas for the large military transport (C5A) and all of the U.S. attack aircraft of Desert Storm (F111, F14, F15, F16, F17 & F18). The NUFORM System for CAM was initially developed to allow for the precision manufacture of the sculptured surfaces for these antennas.

Received the “Forty-one for Freedom” award from the Secretary of the Navy in connection with its work on the Polaris Missile System.

Utilizing the NUFORM System, A. S. Thomas has advanced the state of manufacturing:

  • 1967 – Successfully N/C machined the precision forging dies for a large aircraft engine fan blade.
  • 1968 – Swarfing of ruled surface impellers.
  • 1969 – 5-axis laser drilling of aircraft engine blades.
  • 1973 – N/C precision checkering of contoured rifle gun stocks.
  • 1978 – Off-line programmed swiss style screw machines.
  • 1979 – Implemented first small lot size, high part capability, flexible manufacturing system for cylindrical parts.
  • 1985 – Demonstrated high performance 6-axis belt grinding of turbine blades.
  • 1986 – Machined high twist turbine blade to finish in one pass with no subsequent polishing operations in better time than exisiting roughing operations.
  • 1993 – Thomas Milling patented. Sculptured surfaces machined to “high” finish with high speed / high volume machining.
  • 1994 – Turbine Blades machined to “ready to fly” condition in one operation from raw forgings in time traditionally spent on roughing operation.
  • 1995 – Scroll-Ex introduced for the knowledge based system for the complete design and manufacture of packaging timing screws
  • 1997 – Established 5-axis manufacturing R&D facility providing new manufacturing processes and small lot manufacturing.
  • 1999 – Integrated blade manufacturing system driven from engineering design systems.
  • 2002 – Port of NUFORM System to Windows Platform.
  • 2005 – Direct part and information import from Unigraphics NX.
  • 2014 – Successfully machined blades from magnesium at high speed to fine finish.

A. S. Thomas, Inc. has worked with hundreds of organizations through-out it’s history, from U. S. Government Agencies, Foreign Governments, Fortune 100 firms, International Corporations, to small start-up firms.

Clients are spread through-out the United States, Canada, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, India, Ireland, Germany, Italy, etc.

To obtain further information on A. S. Thomas, Inc. and its products send mail now or contact:

                Manager, Sales
                A. S. Thomas, Inc.
                44 Industrial Way.
                Norwood, MA    02062
                (781)329-9200
                sales@asthomas.com