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.

We have just released the NEW 2018-2019 Masa Tool Catalog! Our first batch of new catalogs is shipping directly to our IMTS booth in Chicago for release, but you can download your own copy right here!

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.

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.

State-of-the-art LFV is a widely applicable cutting technology designed to avoid the problem of spiraling chips, entanglement of chips and built-up edges. Benefits include increased cutting tool life, reduced heat generation and reduced power consumption. 
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The popular Citizen CINCOM L20 series sliding headstock lathes are now available with Low Frequency Vibration (LFV). 

This widely applicable cutting technology – able to handle a broad range of machining shapes and materials – is ideal for cutting difficult-to-cut materials.  The state-of-the-art LFV suppresses various risks associated with these materials, such as entanglement of chips and built-up edges.

Depending on the material being cut, a variety of problems can be caused by chips getting entangled with each other, including increased cutting resistance, scarring, changes in the texture of the machined surface, tool nose damage, and built-up edges due to cutting heat.  In LFV cutting, “air cutting” time prevents the machining temperature from rising, which both prolongs tool lives and gives relief from various problems caused by chips.

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".

A proprietary grinding process and the application of clamping force exactly where it’s needed ensure secure, concentric gripping with a collet system that can potentially fit every turning machine in a shop. 

​Blog: 2/17/2017
by MATT DANFORD
Associate Editor, Modern Machine Shop

Finally, overgrip models that expand 0.157 inch (4 mm) beyond the clamping diameter enable reaching over and gripping the part behind large-diameter areas. ​