Polishing
Polishing is a precision smoothing process used for a wide variety of materials. As a rule, the smoothing effect is achieved by two mechanisms. Firstly, the roughness peaks of the surface structure are fully or partially reshaped and thereby levelled, and secondly, a very low or low degree of material removal takes place, depending on the type of polishing and minute troughs are filled. The surface finish achieved by this process is often shiny as a result of its smoothness.
Because of the company's close proximity to the jewelry-manufacturing centre of Pforzheim, OTEC has been closely involved with polishing processes from the very beginning. The jewelry sector imposes the most stringent requirements on surface finishes. By developing specially tailored abrasive media and corresponding polishing processes, OTEC has quickly grown into the world market leader in the grinding and polishing of jewelry. Today, these processes still represent the state of the art in the jewelry manufacturing industry. OTEC was very quick to turn direct its attention to the requirements of this industry, in which demands include the following:
- Increase the percentage of contact surface in order to reduce wear (e.g. in motor racing)
- Reduce the roughness values (Ra 0.01 / Rz 0.1 µm can very often be achieved with ease)
- Reduce the coefficients of friction
- Reduce leakage in the case of sealing surfaces (e.g. high-speed shafts)
- Achieve greater precision (e.g. for an extremely accurate fit)
- Produce completely smooth, scratch-free surfaces (e.g. for knee implants)
- Increase the maximum cutting speed of cutting tools by polishing the chip flute
OTEC has developed a wide range of different processes specifically designed to fulfil the requirements of individual applications, such as wet polishing processes for bulk materials which improve both the technical properties of the workpieces and their appearance. This enables workpieces to be deburred and polished in a single process. Or special dry polishing processes designed to give a high-luster polish to carbides and ceramics. In most cases, this enables time-consuming manual polishing with diamond pastes to be eliminated altogether.
