Designed for the clamping of micro-workpieces in the sub-spindles of sliding-head turning machines, Floyd Automatic Tooling, in association with Masa Tool of the USA, has released the Microconic system into the UK marketplace. The Microconicworkholding system consists of a cartridge and precision collet. Importantly, no machine adaptations are required: the collet fits inside the cartridge and is adjusted before being fitted directly into the existing collet sleeve.

With a concentricity level of between 3 to 5 µm, Microconic is suitable for sliding-head lathe marques including Tornos, Citizen and Star. It is currently available for F20 and F25 style collets, with F37 versions in development. A 5C version can also be offered.

The cartridge system incorporates a solid extended nose and has the facility for micron-adjustment of the collet closure. To confirm precision levels, the hardened and ground cartridges can be used as gauges to verify spindle accuracy.

Masa’s Microconic also includes ‘over-grip’ collets where clamping behind a shoulder is necessary, for example. The cartridge/collet combination can accommodate openings more than 4 mm larger than the clamping diameter (depending on the application). This flexibility offers production engineers the potential to machine the part the other way around, which can sometimes help improve cycle times.

Microconic collets are available in 0.05 mm increments from 0.22 to 10 mm diameter. Each collet has a nominal clamping range from 0.05 to 0.1 mm depending upon the chosen collet diameter. With regard to the over-grip collets, the nominal clamping diameter starts at 0.5 mm with a maximum clamping diameter of 7.2 mm.

For further information
www.floydautomatic.co.uk

This article originally appeared in Machinery Trade International

Masa Tool’s Microconic T-type over-grip collet features a longer gripping surface for holding longer parts. The collet can open as wide as 3.5 mm (0.138") over the chucking diameter and runs within 5 microns (0.0002") TIR.

The collet is designed for use with longer parts such as bonescrews with wide-pitch threads; orthopedic surgical drills and taps; long shafts with flange; long, thin-walled tubular parts and long plastic parts.

Extra spread is required to open the collet wide enough to go over the larger diameter. The correct over-grip collet for a specific part can be chosen based on grip diameter, width of the grip land and the largest diameter of the part.

According to the company, the collet expands machine capability, eliminates secondary operations and reduces cycle time. It features a standard gripping land length of two-to-three times the diameter. It is available with diameters ranging from 1.55 mm to 7.2 mm (0.061" -0.283").

The collet is said to grip with the same rigidity and accuracy as regular collets and features a fatigue-tested design built to last more than 250,000 full-load cycles. The collets are compatible with the company’s cartridges and come with its Microguide Brass ejection guide sleeve blank.

The push-type F201M10 micro-workholding cartridge system replaces F20-201 cartridges allowing the user of Microconic collets to achieve concentricity within 5µm (0.0002") in production use.

For use in high precision, small diameter CNC turning applications, it enables users to move more work to the sub-spindle for reduced 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, and Hardinge F20-201/4709 collets.

This article originally appeared in
Today's Medical Developments
July 5, 2018

Masa Tool’s Microconic push-type F201M10 cartridge pairs with its Microconic collets for concentricity said to be within 5 microns (0.0002") in production use. The cartridge is a micro-workholding system for use in high-precision, small-diameter CNC turning applications. The cartridge is compatible with spindles that accept F20-201 collets.

The cartridge and accompanying collet are designed to vector the chucking force directly over the holding surface, reducing the chucking force while also increasing the holding power. This reduces chucking damage on the workpiece and reduces cycle times by 20 to 40 percent, the company says. 

The cartridge’s solid extended nose enables access for tooling and coolant with minimal overhang. Its core diameter is a single-piece construction that is designed to maintain 5 microns (0.002") concentricity at the extended nose tip. Used with the company’s Micrograd wrench, the cartridge features micrometer dial control of collet clamping pressure regardless of the machine’s hydraulic or pneumatic collet closing force. The cartridge is suited for small-diameter parts ranging from 0.22 mm (0.008") to 10 mm (0.3934") in diameter.

"Micro-movement" of the workpiece is reduced, resulting in a longer tool life, better finishes, fewer chatter problems, and less damage to the workpiece. The cartridge eliminates secondary operations, saves time and enables operations to be done in the subspindle. Broaching, milling, saw cutting/slotting, turning, boring and drilling can be machined in the subspindle.

CEOCFO:
Mr. Saccomanno, what is the idea at Masa Tool, Inc?  What is your Microconic
Workholding System

Mr. Saccomanno:
Masa Tool is basically formed from our life experience in the machining of micro-precision parts; primarily on Swiss-type screw machines, although the real focus is for high precision small parts manufacturing on any machine type
to better the world of micro machining. Specifically, our first major product release is the Microconic line,

as you mentioned. Microconic is a high precision, collet-type workholding system that fits in conventional machine tools of all types. It provides extremely precise, extremely rigid and also very easy to use workholding for the manufacturing of micro precision products.

CEOCFO:
What are you replacing or enhancing? What are people doing now?

Mr. Saccomanno:
We are replacing an existing collet design. A collet is a traditional workholding device. It is like a split sleeve that has a taper on it and it slides into another tapered receptacle. It clamps down on the work piece and traditionally has been the most precise and rigid way to hold small work pieces for production machining. The most widely
used collet system design was invented about a hundred years ago. It has essentially been used to this day with very little improvement until now. The Microconic system was created to resolve many of the limitations of existing legacy systems.

The neat thing about Microconic is that we fit directly into the existing legacy workholding system, so that it is an
advanced, self contained workholding unit that fits within what is already in the machine. Therefore, the costumer does not have to modify their machine or anything. They can install our product right inside their existing spindle. Then we provide improved accuracy, repeatability, adjustability, consistency, rigidity and everything in every way. There are quite a few different ways that we improved the state of the art.

CEOCFO:
Have manufacturers been looking for a better way or is it once they find Microconic they are excited?

Mr. Saccomanno:
That is a great question! There is excitement when they see what we have, but it is not an easy sell at first. That is because, as you say, it is hard to look for something that you do not know exists. That has been a big part of our marketing hurdle to get over; to distinguish ourselves from the systems that are out there. To answer your question it is both a yes and a no answer. Yes, people have been looking for something else. There are pervasive complaints
throughout the industry about the quality of existing systems and the availability and the consistency. Those are just like part of the landscape. They have been around for years.

Everyone is kind of used to dealing with it and they are always trying to find better sources to get better collets and things like that. On the flip side, because people are so used to dealing with that, they do not really anticipate the revolutionary change that you can get by all of the benefits of the Microconic system. Therefore, it takes a skilled technical person to really talk to the customers specifically about what they can do with their own applications. The cost of Microconic is not trivial, so it is important to show how the value is created by providing capabilities to significantly improve productivity over what can be done with traditional legacy collets.

Microconic’s cartridge is made of exotic high-chromium tool steel, triple tempered and cryogenically treated to provide stable construction. All functional seating surfaces are ground with extreme precision on a one-piece, ultra-rigid body structure.

“The cartridge can be used as a calibration gage to verify the machine spindle accuracy,” Co-owner Chip Prescott notes.

Microconic collets are finished to exacting standards with a five-step grinding process that removes the effect of heat-treat warpage. Also, the proprietary Microconic form of the closure surfaces is inherently more accurate than traditional collets, providing for a greater full-accuracy working range.

Cartridges are available to fit in push-type dead-length collet closers and also draw-type closers: F20M10 (for TF20 collet replacement), F25M10 (for TF25 collet replacement), and 5CM10 (for 5C collet replacement). All of these cartridges use the same Microconic UM10 collets, with more cartridge sizes in development to be released soon.

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.