PECM Issue 40 2019 | Page 46

ADVANCED ENGINEERING SHOW PREVIEW 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 polishing is particularly difficult. So the news that Zeeko has developed a high removal 46 PECM Issue 40 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. That Zeeko has also released a version of its new polishing software and announced that by writing a simple post processor it can be integrated to any regular 3 axis, 4 axis and 5 axis CNC machine as an automated process is even more exciting. For automated processes this is the final frontier! Just a few months after its launch, it is already being adopted by the mobile phone industry for moulds, the aerospace industry for turbine blades, mould makers, hip joint makers and by the additive manufacturing / 3-D printing industry which is testimony to its versatility. For further information please contact [email protected] or call to +44 1530 815 832 Zeeko Ltd, 4 Vulcan Court, Vulcan Way, Coalville, Leicestershire, LE67 3FW, UK