MACHINING & MACHINERY
THE FINAL PROCESS FRONTIER
ZEEKO
AUTOMATED PRECISION POLISHING ON YOUR CNC
MACHINE – THE ZEEKO ZEPHYR PROGRAMME
Zeeko may not be the most famous name
in manufacturing engineering – but in the
optics industry it is a byword for excellence
in precision polishing. A 7 axis machine from
the UK engineering company Zeeko Ltd., that
is based in the East Midlands, is the machine
of choice in the optics industry for polishing
the most challenging of complex surfaces.
Zeeko has been developing its processes and
control software for polishing ultra-precision
freeform surfaces for satellite mirrors for
almost 20 years. High end applications where
tolerances are measured in nanometers
and surfaces are prepared to sub-micron
precision before polishing. As all engineers
know, polishing is difficult and automated
134
PECM Issue 37
polishing is particularly difficult. So the news
that Zeeko has developed a high removal
rate polishing process, which is effective on
regular engineering materials, and removes
microns of material at unprecedented speed,
has caught the attention of production
engineers everywhere.
This new process is more akin to grinding
than to traditional polishing techniques,
but still achieves a highly reflective polished
surface. It can impressively be demonstrated
on materials like mould and tool steels,
tungsten carbide, titanium, Inconel,
molybdenum, aluminium and other often
difficult materials.