Introduced last year by Hertfordshire-based Floyd Automatic Tooling Ltd (www.floydautomatic.co.uk), the MASA Microconic precision work-holding system for the stable sub-spindle clamping of small workpieces has been expanded by new additions launched at the recent IMTS (Chicago) and AMB (Stuttgart) exhibitions.

The Microconic work-holding system consists of a cartridge and a precision collet; the latter fits inside the cartridge and is accurately adjusted before it is fitted directly into the existing collet sleeve.

No machine adaptations are required.

Available with clamping diameters from 0.2 to 10mm, the collets can precisely clamp even the most fragile of parts with precision; and with a concentricity level between 3 and 5µm, this clamping system is ideal for use with sliding-head lathes.

Until now, the system was only available for F20- and F25-style collets, but it has been extended to include the new F37 (1536E) cartridge for 32mm-diameter capacity machine tools.

Moreover, this has been joined by the new F20-201 (136E) system, which is specific to Tornos machine tools.

The Microconic cartridge system from Floyd Automatic incorporates a solid extended nose that is extremely rigid and is designed to give high levels of precision, repeatability and concentricity.

Moreover, it offers micron-adjustment of the collet closure, ensuring that even the most fragile of components can be securely clamped; and confirming their high level of precision, the hardened and ground cartridges can be used as gauges to verify machine spindle accuracy.

The Microconic system also includes ‘over clamping’ collets (for clamping behind a shoulder).

The cartridge/collet combination can accommodate openings up to 4mm larger than the clamping diameter (subject to the application).

This flexibility allows production engineers to machine parts ‘the other way round’, which can often improve cycle times significantly.

MASA Microconic collets are available from 0.22 to 10mm in diameter (in 0.05mm increments), with a nominal clamping range from 0.05 to 0.1mm, depending on the collet diameter.

With regard to the over-grip collets, the nominal clamping diameter starts at 0.5mm, and the maximum clamping diameter is 7.20mm.

The over-grip collets include a part-ejection guide-sleeve blank and have been fatigue-tested to over 250,000 full-load cycles.