Mastercam Excels at Micromachining
Micromachining is the theme for this month! We have a couple customers who specialize in micromachining, and their stories are amazing!
As you may know, micromachining is the machining of very small parts. It is a very complex job, and the techniques you would typically use at a machine shop sometimes just can’t be scaled down for the parts that can fit on the edge of a U.S. quarter.
Typically you are machining parts in all sorts of exotic materials, such as titanium, alloy, and more. Shops are using slender, fragile, and expensive tools, and if they are not careful, the tools can frequently break. Fixturing of these small, micro parts is also another concern since many shops are dealing with parts that are difficult to see clearly with the naked eye.
Micromachining is fascinating and we hope these success stories and videos will be of interest to you!
Micro Precision Parts Manufacturing (MPPM), a Mastercam customer, was recently seen in Modern Machine Shop’s February 2010 issue. They stole the cover page with an image showing their skill at cutting extremely small parts. This part was one of the jaws of a new aneurysm clip, which was cut from silicon nitride ceramic to make it invisible to MRIs, CT scans, and other medical imaging technologies.
This aneurysm clip, which was no bigger than a match head, required 1 million toolpath moves across an area measuring less than half an inch. If that weren’t daunting enough, consider that the clip was made out of one of the hardest materials on Earth.
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When size matters, Albright Technologies delivers. Located in Leominster, MA, they have been thriving in the medical industry where customers need high quality, small parts quickly. 
