In the latest edition of their Medical Manufacturing Yearbook, Manufacturing Engineering featured an article by our very own VP of Sales and Engineering, Jack Burley.
Micromachining, cutting where the volume of chips produced with each tool path is very small, is not a high-speed operation in relation to chip load per tooth. Rather, it involves a high spindle speed due to cutter diameter. The part may be physically larger, but details of the part require ultra-small profiles achieved only by micromachining. In other words, micromachining is not limited in scope to only miniature parts.
Many machine shops lack objective criteria for making toolholder purchasing decisions & most are made by price alone. However they can improve runout significantly by using the right toolholders.