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breaking news

Metal Cutting Corporation Solves 5 year Finishing Problem with Microconic

6/8/2018

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CEDAR GROVE, NJ. -  Metal Cutting Corporation is an independent metal fabricating company that specializes in the burr-free abrasive cut-off of metal parts and the related grinding, lapping, polishing, turning and EDM.  They  manufacture precision metal components for a diverse range of industries, including medical device, automotive, electronic, biotechnology, semiconductor, aerospace, fiber optic, electrical and general mechanical industries.
Recently, Rich Swift from Metal Cutting Corporation, reached out to Masa Tool on Instagram,  @Microconic, and told us:
"I recently purchased your collet system and can't tell you how happy I am with it. I have a part the has a .004 wall thickness and before your collet, no matter what I did I kept getting collet marks on my parts. Not only are the collet marks gone but it's within .0002" round. Thank you for making a superb product."
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Rich Swift's instagram comment to Masa Tool
​That comment lead to us wanting to learn more about how Metal Cutting was using our workholding! This is the very first application success story that has been shared with us on Instagram.   Rich was kind enough to send us some information about how he came to be using Masa Tool.
According to Rich, 

"The pictures with the part on the penny is the one I mentioned on Instagram. I have work on this part for the past 5 years and just when I was ready to throw in the towel I saw an adverstisment for your Microconic collet system in Production Machining Magazine.  I got in touch with Doug Brown, the Vice President of Allendale Machinery here in North Jersey,  and  he put me in touch with Masa Tool's regional manager Mark Bergonzi."
Micromachining Micoconic Citizen Swiss turning part
316L made from solid rod. Check out the .013" hole. It's only out of round by .0001". Made on a Citizen K-16.

About Metal Cutting Corporation

Metalcutting Corporation
Metal Cutting Corporation was founded in 1967 and moved to their current 52,000 square foot manufacturing facility in 1998. In 2008 they expanded their existing machine shop capabilities with Haas and subsequently Citizen turning equipment, allowing them to offer multi-axis CNC milling, lathe and automatic Swiss style machining up to 7 axes.

Their specialty has always been small diameter parts made from all metals.

"The parts can be long but are most often short, often very short."

When the company started in the late 1960's they  primarily worked with non-ferrous metals, especially tungsten and molybdenum. So much so that  in 1984 they became the exclusive North American distributor for Nippon Tungsten Co., Ltd.’s tungsten and molybdenum products. Since  the the 1980's they have been working with and machining more stainless steel and now have a developed a deep knowledge of machining the newer nickel and titanium based alloys.


Brass Medical Part Swiss machine
The part shown above has a .001" runout specification and previously run parts showed that the pickoff collet was making a tri-lobe detent on the .032" diameter. Needless to say Masa Microconic eliminated that problem.
Citizen K-16E VII Microconic Wokholding
Tiny brass contacts made on Citizen K-16E VII and held with Microconic. The head thickness is .010"/.012" and the small diameter is .030"/.033".
Mark, from Masa, and and Doug, from Allendale Machinery, visited Rich at Metal Cutting.
​
According to Rich,  "I was sold before he could get it out of his demo case."

​"Since this part is a medical part every thing had to be perfect. Ever since I purchased the Microconic system our customer has been very pleased with our parts and, believe it or not, it has less burrs than before."
Over the past several months Rich has been able to apply the Microcnic system to several other products that they make in their Citizen Machines.
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Workholding: Success in Medical Manufacturing

11/15/2017

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Todays Medical Developments Log Masa Tool Article
This article originally appeared in the April 2017 issue of Today's Medical Developments.
​It was the cover story entitled: "Micro-Precision Machining" by Elizabeth Modic

The Microconic system benefits orthopedic bone screws, miniature precious metal components for pacemakers, and other implantables; machined surgical components made of hypodermic needle tubing; and surgical instrument components. Here’s one example – dental implants.
Material:
Titanium alloy bar stock

Machine:
Star SR20 Swiss-type CNC Automatic Lathe

Previous method:
The dental implant was machined almost entirely on the main spindle of the machine due to the need to have a powerful grip on the bar for a high-force, blind-hole, hexagon broach. Very little work was done on the pick-off spindle, so that sat idle for most of the cycle.

Cycle time reduction:
164 sec. to 98 sec. per part; 40% improvement achieved by moving all ID machining operations to the pick-off spindle, where they were performed in shaded time while the main spindle completed the OD. This was previously impossible to do with legacy collets, because the broaching force would push the part back in the collet. The 0.001" concentricity requirement of ID to OD could not be reliably achieved with legacy extended-nose collets, and they damaged the critical surface finish on the OD of the implant.
Todays Medical Developments Microconic Dental Implant workholding
Matt Saccomanno’s Microconic collet-type workholder for small part machining was inspired by his experience in a Swiss screw-machine job shop.
Cost savings:
Production rate went from 18pph to 32pph, a 44% cost savings. In addition, a hand deburring operation was eliminated due to the cut-off being on the opposite end.

ROI:
Cost of the Microconic system was recouped in 64 production hours; a $14,015 saved in direct production costs of a 10,000-piece order.

About the author: Elizabeth Modic is the editor of Today’s Medical Developments and can be reached at emodic@gie.net or 216.393.0264.
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Workholding Advances: Microconic helps Customer Broach a Dental Implant on the Subspindle

6/14/2017

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The below article excert originally appeared in Advanced Manufacturing magazine.  
You can read the entire article at the title link at the bottom of this page.
Microconic helps Customer Broach a Dental Implant on the Subspindle
Workholding Advances
Medical parts are often delicate, which can create problems when they are picked off with the subspindle for backwork. It is important but difficult to apply just the right amount of pressure to hold the part in the subspindle. And once the optimum gripping force is determined, it is not easy to communicate to other operators how the adjustment was made.

​Machine tool accessory maker Masa Tool Inc. (Oceanside, CA) has developed a collet system that makes this process easier. The collet is set using a special tool with marked graduations that enable precise adjustments to the gripping force of the collet.

“You can document the micrometer-like adjustment for the collet closure in your setup plan,” said Matt Saccomanno, CEO.  “It’s done the same way every time, regardless of operator skill and without relying on feel.”

One of the more challenging Swiss applications is making dental implants because of their small size. Saccomanno said that Masa recently helped a customer broach a dental implant on the subspindle with the Masa collet system holding only a small land. Considering how much force is applied to the workpiece during a broaching operation, this might have seemed impossible to accomplish.

The reason it is possible is that the Masa collet system applies the gripping forces directly over the area where the collet grips the part. The collet system has two main parts, a cartridge that replaces the standard machine collet and a smaller collet made by Masa that is installed into the cartridge. These components are held to a high accuracy and are made by Masa with proprietary grinding methods. Concentricity variation is held to 0.0002″ (0.005 mm).

“This particular broaching application used an over-grip collet,” Saccomanno said. “The process change moved an operation from the main-spindle to the subspindle and so allowed some simultaneous machining not possible previously. Before they used our system, the part was made entirely on the main spindle.”
​
An over-grip collet opens up to pass over a shoulder or some other feature on a part in order to grip the part past the shoulder. Masa makes over-grip collets that can open up to 4 mm over the chucking diameter. This is the largest difference in diameter in the industry and still holds 0.0002″ TIR, according to Masa.

Read the entire article by clicking the link below

AMN Advanced Manufacturing org logo
Swiss-Style Turning: Rx for Medical Parts Manufacturing
​May 9, 2017 
​
by Dave Nelson
​
Contributing Editor
ADVANCEDMANUFACTURING.ORG

Special Thanks to Mark Hurst from HiTech Industrial for bringing this application solution to their attention.
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Everything you wanted to know about the Microconic #Workholding System

10/11/2016

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Matt Saccomanno, the inventor of the Microconic Workholding system discussed how it works at IMTS 2016.  

Masa Tool has developed the Microconic™ system specifically for holding workpieces from Ø0.15mm to 10mm (Ø0.006" to 0.390") in any machine that has a collet-type chuck.

The system consists of two major components: The Microconic™ cartridge, which fits into your CNC machine spindle replacing the standard 5C, TF20 or TF25 collets, and the Microconic™ collet, which fits in the Microconic™ cartridge. 

The Microconic™ system has unsurpassed concentricity: Our manufacturing tolerance is 3µm (.0001") and we guarantee our cartridges to be within 5µm (0.0002") in production use in your machine.

The Microconic™ system works with either draw-type or push-type standard collet systems that are in any machine.

​The Over-grip collet capabilities of Masa Microconic™ System, introduces a whole new world of time saving opportunities awaiting. Our Overgrip Collets open up to 4mm (0.157") diameter larger than the clamping diameter.
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Microconic System to be Unveiled at IMTS 2016: W-2232

8/3/2016

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Make plans now to visit Masa Tool at the  IMTS 2016 Booth W-2232 and learn about our new Microconic Workholding System.

The Microconic™ work holding system is a mechanically actuated micro-workholding system for use in high precision, small diameter CNC turning applications.

The system consists of two major components: The Microconic™ cartridge, replaces the standard TF20 collets and  fits into your CNC machine with no modifications to the spindle required.  The second component to the system is the  Microconic™ collets which have capacities of 0,22mm - 10,00mm ( 0.0086" - 0.3949") and -Over-Grip collets which can open up to 4mm over the chucking diameter and run within 5 µm/.0002" TIR

It's the first and only workholding system for the micro-machining industry.

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Microconic Eliminates Collet Damage & Saves OVER $533 a Day!

6/16/2016

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The Chip Wrap Nightmare!
Superior Machined Products has decades of experience manufacturing implants, abutments, Multi fluted twist and spade drills, bone screws, analogs fixture mounts, all types of drivers and surgical tools

Superior brought in Masa Tool's Microconic F25M10 Cartridge and collets for use in sub spindle pickoff in producing dental implants.
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Chip wrap on dental implant
According to Juan Maravilla at Superior Machined Products Before the Microconic System was installed 

​
"An experienced machinist would bore a TF25 sub spindle soft emergency collet  in the machine in order to achieve good concentricity.  5% of the parts would experience chip wrap around the chucking area of the implant."
 
​"Every time the collet would chuck on the parts with chip wrap, it would leave an impression in the collet.  Sometimes the chip would stay lodged in that impression and the parts run from that point on are scrapped due to the chip impressions on the part and once noticed, the collet would need to be replaced."

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Avinger Review of Microconic TF25 Collet System

5/18/2016

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Avinger Inc., based in Redwood City, California,  designs, develops and manufactures precision medial device technology with the goal of helping patients keep their legs. Recently they began testing the Micoconic system on their Citizen L20 (7M8) Swiss Screw Machine using a Utilis 3000 series cutoff holder and an 1/5mm X 10mm insert.  The bar stock was .225" OD round.

They where kind enough to share their test results with us. 

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

3/23/2016

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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.  
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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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Cascading Failures stopped by Precision, Hardened & Ground Microconic UM collet for Dental Implant

9/30/2015

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Our customer was machining 6Al4V Titanium dental implants and scrap rates increased the longer our competitors collets where in use.  

This root cause was primarily result of cutting the threads in the main spindle.  Chips wrapped around the finished threads before the implant was handed over to the sub spindle collet for machining of the head hex and internal thread.

Collet wear & bad parts

The chip wrap of the dental implant part was periodic due to tool wear.  Clamping on the chips, that where wrapped around the implant in the TF25 sub spindle collet, led to two collet wear problems in less than 10,000 parts on a swiss screw machine:
  • Deformation of the ID clamping surface of the collet
  • Bell mouthing of the face of the collet
​Concurrently, there was a mushrooming of the Titinium head of the workpiece from the uneven clamping pressure due to the collet bell mouthing.  Scrap rates and collet replacement times where not predictable in a lights out production environment.
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Fig. 1: 6Al4V Titanium Dental Implant chip wrapping during threading on the main spindle
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Fig. 2: Bell mouthing of competitors collet after 10,000 parts
In the competitors collet, the Titanium material started to yield where the chucking occurred  (Fig.2) This caused an out of round situation and caused micro movement in the workpiece..
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Fig. 3: ID wear and damage of competitors collet after 10,000 parts.
The unpredictable periodic clamping on the wrapped chips on the workpiece embedded chip impressions in the collet (Fig. 3) which in turn marked the next part when it was chucked on. 

As a result the competitor's collet workholding lost it's chucking power from the bell mouthing in the front. By becoming out of round, parts lost their concentricity.

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Collet Workholding Concentricity from 0.0001" to 0.00015"

8/13/2014

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Article originally appeared in Cutting Tool Engineering March 2014 / Volume 66 / Issue 3
In the world of micromachining, precision is relative—the smaller the work, the greater the need for accuracy in all aspects of the process. End users must optimize the entire micromanufacturing system to be efficient, competitive and successful.

Traditional techniques for achieving precision may work well for macro-scale parts, but can be subtly awkward or downright clumsy when applied to smaller work. Workholding is a classic example of this, noted Matt Saccomanno, a principal who handles product design, engineering and R&D for Masa Tool Inc.

He added that a collet is often the best workholding method because it firmly grips the workpiece and is highly accurate in a production setting. 

However, the collet system installed by the machine builder accommodates the largest workpiece the machine was designed for, such as a Swiss-style machine with a 20mm capacity.
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Microconic workholding system consists of (clockwise, starting at 12 o’clock) a cartridge, collet, hex key wrench and collet wrench with graduations for adjusting the collet closure.
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The Microconic system can be installed in the subspindle of a Swiss-style CNC lathe.
Although collets for smaller bores to hold smaller workpieces are available, the rest of the system (collet body, spindle nose and closing mechanism) is sized for 20mm, creating problems when chucking smaller parts, according to Saccomanno.

Therefore, Masa Tool developed the Microconic collet system specifically for holding workpieces from 10mm (0.39 ") to 0.75mm (0.03 ") in any machine that has a collet-type chuck. The system consists of two major components: the cartridge, which transforms the work spindle for miniature workholding, and the “right-sized” collet, which fits in the cartridge. 

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