Matt goes on to explain how the Microconic System solves all of the problems with traditional pickoff collet with a   guaranteed 0002" TIR accuracy and ships everything from stock within two days of placing an order!

Matt Saccomanno, the Co-Founder of Masa Tool and inventor of the Microconic Workholding sytem will talking about process innovations in the metalcutting manufacturing industry during the International Manufacturing Technology Show, IMTS, in September at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL. 

Swiss-type CNC machines have gained in capability and demand as the machined components they produce are trending toward higher precision and micro-sized features. As the machines have become more sophisticated, the underlying basics of workholding remained unchanged until recently.

​This presentation is an overview of new developments as well as traditional approaches with relevance to today’s highly capable sliding headstock “Swiss-type” CNC turning centers. The goal is to summarize best-practices for optimizing use of both main and sub-spindle to maximize productivity and overall equipment effectiveness. The material presented is useful for machinists, CNC programmers, tool crib personnel, manufacturing engineers, estimators, and hands-on managers.

If you would like to reserve your spot in this technical presentation and discussion please click the below button.

OCEANSIDE, CA - Masa Tool has just released the newest product in the Microconic line of cartridges for swiss machine workholding. The NEW push type F201M10 Cartridge replaces the Tornos F20-201 collet in your CNC spindle. This enables you to use our Microconic collets to achieve concentricity guaranteed to be within 5µm (0.0002") in production use.

The F201M10 Cartridge is a micro-workholding system for use in high precision, small diameter CNC turning applications which enables you to move more work to the sub spindle operations and reduce cycle time.

​The F201M10 Cartridge  is compatible with spindles that accept F20-201 collets including  DIN 136E,  Meister Swiss 136E, Schaublin F20 (76-201),  Southwick & Meister F20-201, KEB (MasWerks) MC20-201,  Hardinge F20-201 / 4709 collets.

Masa’s Cartridge and Collet assembly is designed to vector the chucking force directly over the holding surface.  This means that the chucking force can be reduced while at the same time the holding power is increased. This opens up the possibility of moving part operations to the sub-spindle and dramatically reducing cycle time.  20% ~ 40% cycle time reduction is commonly achieved.​

F201M10 Cartridge Features

• Solid extended nose, giving superior access for tooling and coolant, with minimal overhang.
• The cartridge's core diameter is a single piece construction that will maintain 5 µm/.0002" concentricity at the extended nose tip.
• Micrometer dial control of collet clamping pressure regardless of the machines hydraulic or pneumatic collet closing force with the use of our Micrograd™ Wrench. Ideally suited for small diameter part size range from .2mm/.008" to 10mm/.3934" diameter
• 2-days shipping on all cartridges and collets​.
  

Set ups are quicker and more repeatable with Microconic™. You can document the micrometer-adjust collet closure in your set up plan so it's done the same every time, regardless of operator skill and without relying on "feel". ​

OCEANSIDE, CA.  Masa Tool has expanded their line of Microconic over-grip collets to include a new style called a "T-type."  The T-type over-grip collet has a longer gripping surface than the original W-type. We designed it specifically for longer parts such as bone screws with wide pitch threads.

Typically with over-gripping applications, a shorter land length/clamping pad length/grip length is desired because of limited space available to hold the workpiece behind the enlarged head or flange that it is reaching over. That is what our original W-type collet was optimized for.

However, with longer parts, with more surface area for clamping and gripping room, a longer land length is often preferred to provide more stability to support the longer length workpiece.

Due to the extreme opening capability of our overgrip collets , workpiece ejection must be very reliable to prevent a part from becoming stuck in the slots of the collet. ​Therefore we have developed  the Microguide™ ejection guide sleeve to prevent parts from falling inside the collet instead of ejecting into the part catcher.  ​

Masa Tool is introducing its Microconic workholding system for use in subspindle Swiss-type machine operations, enabling the operator to switch operations from the main to the subspindle so that usage is balanced. This capability is said to reduce cycle time in ways that are not possible with conventional collets.

​The Microconic system consists of two primary components: a cartridge that fits in the machine’s standard TF20, TF25 or 5C collet closer, and the collet itself, which fits into the cartridge. Each cartridge model has a solid extended nose and can accept both regular and over-grip collets. The over-grip collets open up to 0.157" (4 mm) larger than the clamping diameter.

​The Microconic cartridge’s extended nose design directs all of the chucking pressure directly over the workpiece for concentricity and rigidity. Total indicated runout (TIR) for the Microconic system is guaranteed at 0.0002" (5 µm) at the workpiece, absent any runout introduced by the machine structure or other elements of the setup. The system capacity ranges from 0.008" to 0.394" (0.2 to 10 mm) in diameter, with all sizes available from stock.

We got a very unexpected present in the mail this past week! We where very excited to learn that our Microconic workholding system for small diameter part machining was featured in the Rapid Traverse section of the June 2017 issue of Modern Machine Shop!!!

We've got pictures of the article below in case you don't currently subscribe to Modern Machine Shop.  You can also download a PDF copy of the entire June issue below in the link. It starts on Page 25 of the PDF download.  If you have the print edition it's on Page 22, or you can just read thought the screen shots below.  

We want to really extend a very big THANK YOU to Matt Danforth at Modern Machine Shop who wrote this article.  Matt really did an awful lot of work learning about the various features of our system. We know there where many many hours that he spent to develop this story just from the sheer number of follow up questions and conversations.  We really have an awful lot of respect for the entire MMS team and the effort they put into getting their story's "just right".

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.