Feature - Micromoldmaking: It's a Small World After All - 09/06

Miniature Tool & Die: Good Things Micro molding and micro EDM’ing help a moldmaker fine-tune its niche and double sales in a year’s time. The mantra for moldmakers today is to diversify and specialize to stay in business. Finding a niche, sticking with it and becoming an expert is a time-proven formula for continued success. A virtually untapped market is micromoldmaking, which is used to produce miniature parts in industries like medical, pharmaceutical and electronics. While there are many definitions of how small is small, Dennis Tully, vice president of engineering at Miniature Tool & Die, Inc. (Charlton, MA)—a mold builder specializing in miniature mold building and micro EDM’ing—states that a micro part is a part with features not seen without magnification, wall thicknesses under .010 inch, part weights measured in 1/1000 gram units, and tolerances measured in microns. “Micromoldmaking creates micro parts or parts with micro features,” Tully explains. He notes that these parts are typically produced in special mold frames that have the following features: Miniature Tool & Mold has spent eight years testing, developing and learning to apply technology. Tully notes the company is “very protective” of its intellectual property. “We have used non-conventional processes to create cavities and inserts for micro molds,” he states, “including processes created for use in other industries. We also have worked with outside resources at Universities and R&D facilities to adapt existing technology for use in making cavities and inserts.” This is the world’s smallest production part. It is ejected with a .0050-inch diameter ejector pin. Images courtesy of Miniature Tool & Die. Additionally, the company has worked with existing moldmaking equipment manufacturers to modify their equipment to achieve smaller features, tighter tolerances and better surface