Shop improves Dental Surgical Tool Production with Microconic Over-Grip Collets

A Swiss CNC machine shop presented us with several problems related to long cycle times and poor tool life  with a high-volume group of  Dental Surgical Drills, Taps, and Counterbore Drills with standard ISO shank configuration.  

​These surgical components are made from 465 SS, 17-4PH, and Titanium.  The shop makes them complete with cutting edges on a Swiss-type CNC turning center. 

Due to the complexity of the cutting edge configurations, they are machined entirely on the main spindle, with the cutting edges out first. In all cases the cutting edges are larger in diameter than the shank.  

Before Microconic: The Workholding Problems

Before implementing the Microconic solution there were a number of problems:

• The cutting edges would be damaged by contact with the pick-off collet.
• All operations had to be performed in the main spindle because the part could not be held rigidly enough in the sub-spindle. This made for a very long cycle time.
• The milled flat and groove operations on the shank end had to be finished in the main spindle because of the lack of rigidity & lack of concentricity in the sub spindle
• The cut off tool took a beating due to the interrupted cut at the milled flat.  The cut off tool had to be sharpened or replaced every 60 pieces.
• Due to high tool maintenance and frequent adjustments, these jobs required a skilled setup person to run this product with little time to spend elsewhere. 

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