Based in Fort Worth, Texas, the company is ISO 9001 and AS9100 certified, providing customers turnkey solutions in the design, engineering, manufacture and qualification of advanced composite tooling and structures.

Since 1992, Sawyer Composite has specialized in producing Advanced Composite laminates and assemblies for aerospace. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, the company is ISO 9001 and AS9100 certified, providing customers turnkey solutions in the design, engineering, manufacture and qualification of advanced composite tooling and structures.

In 2024, the FZU22 portal milling machine was launched by Zimmermann onto the U.S. market and Sawyer was among the first customers. After a little over a year in operation, J.R. Tubb, CNC programmer at Sawyer, shares an initial assessment in the following Q&A…

Question: What challenges were you looking to solve when investing in a new portal milling machine?

Tubb: Our older machines increasingly struggled with accuracy, throughput and downtimes. The FZU22 provided immediate improvement. It runs reliably, delivers impressive precision, and its rigid monoblock design allows for significantly faster machining. As a result, our throughput has increased and the amount of required rework has dropped considerably.

Question: What impressed you most about the FZU22?

Tubb: The enclosed workspace is a major advantage. When milling composite materials, the carbon dust stays within the machine and doesn't reach sensitive components. We're also very pleased with the minimum-quantity lubrication (MQL) system. It has reduced our lubricant consumption, leading to lower costs, less waste and a much cleaner working environment. On top of that, the Siemens Sinumerik ONE CNC control system can be operated quickly and intuitively, just perfect for our 5-axis machining at Sawyer.


Question: What impact does the new machine have on daily production?

Tubb: We have a program for a component that runs on every machine. When we machined this part on the FZU22, we finished almost 30 minutes faster and with much better surface quality. The finishing work now takes only half as long. An outstanding result and perfect interaction between operator and machine. As another example, we had a series of aluminum plates to machine. Thanks to Zimmermann and their service team advice, we now achieve the required tolerance on the first run, without necessary adjustments or rework. That saves a tremendous amount of time and resources. Choosing the FZU22 was absolutely the right decision for our company.

Cornelius Kiesel, president of North America for Zimmermann believes the FZU22 is a perfect example of productivity without compromise, as it offers compact, precise state-of-the-art control technology. The results obtained by Sawyer demonstrate how well the FZU22 performs in practical operations as well as across multiple industries. "By implementing the FZU22, our customers can make their manufacturing more flexible, accelerate processes and improve quality at the same time. The strong performance in the U.S. market reinforces our promise of going ‘beyond precision'."

Kiesel added, "The example of Sawyer shows that, despite the current circumstances, there is significant potential in the North American market and customers are willing to invest when quality and service meet expectations."


About Zimmermann
Zimmermann is based in Germany and is a leading global high-tech supplier of portal milling machines. These are characterized by huge workspaces, substantial machining dynamics and cutting performance. The company has its North American headquarters in Wixom, Michigan, near Detroit, where it operates a full tech center, offering engineering assistance, commissioning, parts and retrofit services, as well as multiple machines for demonstration purposes. Zimmermann Inc. is headed by President Cornelius Kiesel.

Zimmermann, founded in 1933 by Friedrich Zimmermann, now has over 200 employees worldwide. With its product range, our innovative company has one goal above all: to offer the right solution for our customers and thus be able to guarantee high economic efficiency. "Quality made in Germany and supported locally" is our motto. The company's special machines are used worldwide in the automotive, aerospace, moldmaking, transportation, off-highway and mechanical engineering sectors.