Micro Molding Innovation Since 1972

Miniature Tool & Die began its operations in the basement of founder Richard J. Tully’s 200-year-old Colonial home in Charlton, Massachusetts. The main product at that time was making connector molds for the Electronics Industry.

In January of 1975, Miniature Tool & Die, Inc. bought an existing machine shop, Layson Machine, which was located at 100 Grove Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. Layson Machine had an EDM (Electrical Discharge Machine) that was the determining factor for the acquisition. This EDM machine was one of the very few in this area at the time. EDM was in its infancy but the potential was bright. This type of machining was not an easy sell and business was not too brisk in the mid ’70s.

In June of 1977, Miniature Tool & Die, Inc. bought a new EDM machine and, at the same time, moved to 127 Cambridge Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. Business was picking up and EDM was now a force in the machining industry. We continued to build Connector molds for the Electronics Industry along with doing EDM work for mold shops in the area.

In 1982, Miniature Tool & Die bought a CNC Wire EDM Machine to expand the EDM capability further. This was one of the first machines of its kind in New England. That machine allowed MTD to create details that were otherwise not possible.

In 1985, we purchased our second Wire EDM machine and have continued to expand in the CNC area with the purchase of the Elox CNC vertical EDM, the CNC Okuma Milling machine, an Okuma CNC Turning Center, and our newly acquired Herbert Walter 24 position Automated Tool Changer CNC EDM machine

In 1998, Miniature Tool & Die, Inc. moved into our brand new employee designed 16,500 square foot facility on 15 Trolley Crossing in Charlton, Massachusetts. This was considered an investment in our future. This same year, we began working on a new niche: micro-mold building. Very little was known about micro mold building or micro molding in 1998, but we expected the future to be bright.

Our previous mold making business allowed MTD to establish relationships with a few major medical OEMs. With the encouragement of those customers, we began micro molding in 2001. MTD’s first “micro” molding machine was a Nissei Denkey.

This is the year of the first bioabsorbable molding project at MTD as well.

1 Sodick vertical press and 1 Sodick horizontal press purchased. Purchased first RJG eDart system ever used for a micromolding application.

Between 2008–2009, MTD upgraded all critical equipment in the in-house tooling department. We added Sarix micro EDM milling technology—the only system in North America at the time.

On April 1, 2010, we began using our new name: MTD Micro Molding.

The expectation with the new name was to help people recognize that our new business is micro molding, while our foundation is very much MTD. And so began the mission of educating medical OEMs that smaller, better critical components are possible. The focus was on providing highly specialized products that meet the exact requirements of companies in the medical, electronics, and microfluidics fields.

In 2010, we also started working with international medical device companies. We stopped manufacturing turn-key molding cells for other companies, while keeping all tooling and micromolding operations under one roof at MTD’s facility.

Smallest part in the world created by MTD. The ophthalmic implant for glaucoma treatment weighs in at 0.00000313 grams, with a gate measuring .0018 x .0008 inches.

This year, drug-filled bioabsorbable material molding began. Pharma loss through extrusion was significantly higher than micro injection molding—practically no post-mold drug loss with MTD’s method.

MTD Micro Molding ranked #1274 in the Inc. 500|5000 list due to a 3-year growth percentage of 228%.

Cleanroom expansion: 1200 sq ft ISO Class 8 cleanroom to increase capacity for 8 more molding cells.

First MTD process technician to become a certified Master Molder.

MTD is the first micro injection molding company in the world to receive the MedAccred Certification. We also received ISO 13485 Certification. During this record sales year, we expanded the molding and tooling departments to best support our unique specialty in providing solutions for bioabsorbable and drug delivery components.