Since 1973, Micro-Matics of Fridley, MN, has been manufacturing CNC Swiss precision screw machine products including many kinds of contacts & pins, ground shafts, hardened bushings, rivets, screws, spacers and other custom parts for the medical, dental, aerospace, commercial, defense, computer, telecommunications and automotive industries.

According to Jason Wobig, Operations Manager, "Micro-Matics is primarily an aerospace and medical components, Swiss machining job shop. We make components that are thousandths of an inch up to an 1-1/4" in diameter. We started out with the old manual style, Cam driven Swiss machines and we're one of the largest Escomatic shops in the Midwest.  And as the company's grown and evolved, we've turned into Swiss job shop, mostly Citizen machines like the M16,  a L12, and a M32, as well as a few Star and Tsugami machines that give us a wide variety of capabilities."

In 1996, Matt Saccomanno, CEO of Masa Tool, was frustrated with the limitations of conventional collets and workholding systems when performing secondary machining operations so his solution was to develop a high-precision, collet-type workholding device for small parts machining.

The Microconic system consists of a cartridge and collet, with the cartridge fitting in the machine just like a standard legacy collet. The cartridge is a self-contained precision mechanism using the machine’s standard collet closing function, which means that the Microconic system can be used on any machine utilizing 5C, TF20, TF25 or TF37 collets. 

According to Saccomanno "Since a collet system for any given machine must be made large enough to fit the maximum workpiece diameter capacity of the machine, the result is the standard collet mechanism is designed to handle the largest workpieces, which means it is excessively forceful and bulky when used for the smaller workpieces. Smaller parts get sacrificed, because they typically require a higher degree of accuracy and the workholding is more critical."

The Microconic system consists of the cartridge, which fits into your machine like a standard collet, and the Microconic collets which fit into Masa's unique cartridge.  Every Microconic cartridge comes standard with extended nose for unsurpassed rigidity because of it's single piece construction.

"In fact, the cartridge is so accurate that it can be used as a gauge to verify machine spindle accuracy," said Pakiz.

Thayer explained how the Microconic system has worked for Micro-Matics "With the Masa system we're able to dial in a nice specific tension to hold that catheter part without crushing it or deforming it at all and having it on center.  In a nutshell, we get better quality parts consistently with tighter tolerances. It's lead to a really significant improvement, it's increased throughput, so we have more parts at the end of the day."

"As a result of the implementation, the scrap rate on this part dropped dramatically once we added the new Masa system by at least 30%." added Wobig. 

According to Masa Tool, the Microconic cartridge  concentricity is guaranteed to be within 5µm (.0002") runnout and the collets are hardened and precision ground to the highest quality standards. The regular, UM10,  10mm collets, that  Micro-Matics is using in their F20M10 Cartidge are available from Ø0.2mm (.008") to 10mm (.394").  In additon to the TF 20 spindles, the same collets can be used in TF25, TF37 and 5C sub spindles.

"With the Microconic system, we didn't need to buy any special collets for any specific profile, we just got the actual diameter for the OD of the part and we're running it with that. The spaces in between on that collet is small enough that it's not distorting the round to flat portion if it even gets into there at all. So there's no timing issues at set-up. We just put it in there, set our tension, and start picking them off." added Wobig

Thayer continued "The extended nose pieces on the Microconic cartridge helps on the catheter tips because  you can get closer up to where I actually have a supporting back end.   Because if I'm too far away from that supporting back and you have more of a tendency to crush the front of that part. The Microconic gives me a better tension on the part.  On the distal coupler, we have to use a boring bar, or a facing tool to create the back face, which is round. We'd have a lot of trouble trying to hold without nibs or anything on there. And this holds it so that the part stays a little more square, and we're able to turn it better."

When dealing with very small parts and setting with small gage pins, accidents do sometimes happen.  "The only problem I've had with it was when somebody was trying to set the collet tension with a pin. They put the pin into the slot and not the hole and wrecked the collet. Because the pin was able to fit inside the slot so when they started tightening it up, and the pins started deforming the collet was wrecked because it wasn't in the hole in the center." said Thayer.

Masa has indicated that they will release a new TF 15 and TF16 Cartridge with an entire series of smaller 5mm capacity collets at IMTS 2022.

Please extend a welcome to Clark Manufacturer's Service  as the newest members our Microconic team!

OCEANSIDE, CA - Masa Tool is very pleased to announce that Clark Manufacturer's Service has joined our Masa Team in April  2018.  They will be our representative agency partner in the Northwestern US managing the states of Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington. 

RAM Sales & Marketing is pleased to announce it association with Brandon Mazza as it’s NEWEST member of the sales team, effective August 14, 2017.  ​

We are excited to welcome Ram Sales and Marketing to our Microconic team just in time for Christmas!

We are excited to welcome Jones Marketing​ Inc. to our Microconic team!

The Jones Marketing team represents leading industrial cutting tool and machine tool accessories manufacturers throughout the Southeast United States.

They're dedicated to exceeding the requirements and expectations of the industrial tool brands they represent, their distribution partners, and the customers they serve. They strive to present their customers with the latest technologies available to maximize productivity.

We are very pleased to announce the Paul Klussmann and Larry Van Deusen from Mann Sales & Marketing have been appointed our Agents in New England and upstate New York  on October 1, 2015.
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Mann Sales & Marketing, a Multi Agent Independent Manufacturers Representative Agency, was established in 2013 with the goal of providing Superior Sales & Marketing Services to Premier Industry Leaders whose products are used in the industrial sector. The team has over four decades of unparalleled industry expertise and strong relationships, which we built by working closely with our ISA & STAFDA distribution channels.

Paul tells us that "Mann Sales & Marketing’s success comes from our ability to use our knowledge of manufacturing processes to call directly at the end user level promoting our clients products and offering value added solutions to our customers." 
We're looking forward to Paul and Larry introducing out Micorconic system to the machine shops in their area and engaging us with limited distribution and machinery dealer partners.  Please reach out and tell them congratulations! 

We are very pleased to announce that High Tech Industrial Representation Inc. has joined our Masa Team in September 2015.  They will be our agency partner in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota.
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​High Tech was started in January of 2000 and is based near Minneapolis, Minnesota. They represent industrial manufacturers whose products are focused on the machining industry and require a high level of technical sales support.

High Tech employs a non-competing strategy of represented lines that often build on the success from one sale to the next.

High Tech's future is designed to grow, evolving with technological advancements and market changes.   Please reach out to them and welcome them!