Send us Fan Mail Sam Thomason’s career sits at the intersection of technical sales, manufacturing automation, Japanese business culture, and advanced machining. With more than 14 years of experience in CNC machinery, factory automation, and industrial robotics, Sam has worked across the U.S., Japan, and Australia helping manufacturers evaluate and adopt technologies that improve productivity, safety, and competitiveness. He is currently National Sales Manager for Shibaura Machine Company, America’s Nano Processing division, where he is responsible for U.S. sales strategy and customer development around the UVM Series ultra-precision machining platforms. His work involves helping engineering, R&D, tooling, and executive teams define applications, validate processes, and qualify advanced nano-machining capabilities for industries such as optics, photonics, medical devices, semiconductor-adjacent manufacturing, and high-precision moldmaking. Shibaura describes the UVM Series as high-precision machining centers built around high-speed, high-quality machining with high-precision aerostatic bearing spindles, with applications in precision molds, automotive lighting, lenses, smartphone frames, LED packaging molds, and precision parts machining. Before joining Shibaura Machine, Sam held roles in automation, robotics, machine tools, and business development with organizations including Workr Labs, Yuasa International, Konica Minolta Australia, SE4, and TAKAMAZ. His early career included working in Japan as an application engineer and technical sales/cutting engineer at TAKAMAZ, giving him a practical foundation in CNC programming, machining applications, and communicating technical details across cultures. Sam’s background also includes robotics and teleoperation, including work with SE4 in Tokyo, where he helped demonstrate latency-resilient robotic teleoperation software and even supported a live international demo operating a dual-arm robot in Tokyo from Abu Dhabi despite more than 30 seconds of video lag. That experience gives him a broad perspective on where automation is headed, from industrial robotics to ultra-precision machining. For this conversation, Sam wants to focus on non-traditional machining topics such as non-machining, diamond turning, and hard milling. His perspective should be especially valuable for engineers who want to understand where conventional manufacturing assumptions break down, when ultra-precision equipment changes the process equation, and how technologies like diamond turning and hard milling can open new possibilities in optics, tooling, molds, medical components, and advanced manufacturing. LINKS: Sam Thomason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-thomason/ Aaron Moncur, host PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/ Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday. The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus
