When it comes to metal polishing, there are two primary processes. Automated polishing systems can be used, or polishing can be done manually by hand. Most metal finishing shops only offer manual metal polishing, which is both labor and time intensive. When a process is labor and time intensive, that most often means it’s more expensive. Automated polishing systems use programmed robots for polishing, which cuts back on labor and time making it a desirable option for metal polishing.

Benefits of Automated Polishing Systems

• Automated polishing systems reduce the need for manual labor, which saves on labor costs
• Using robots reduces the time used for metal polishing, for example a part that took 30 minutes by hand could take 12 minutes
• Bend Plating has more capacity for automated polishing than anyone else on the West Coast
• Many other metal plating shops don’t offer automated metal polishing, but Bend Plating does
• At Bend Plating, we program our own robots and built our own tooling for the polishing robots
• Metal polishing at Bend Plating is perfect for mid-sized manufacturing companies with 100-500 assembles a week
• Automated polishing systems are better for workplace safety

For items that require metal polishing, surfaces start tougher and get finer and finer through the automated polishing systems process. Automated polishing systems use programmed robots to smooth and level raw pieces of steel. If these raw metals aren’t polished properly, it’s most likely that they will never look as good as that need to. Automated polishing systems can be used to give these metal pieces smooth or grained surfaces that will go on to be electroplated and applied with PVD coating.

The more complex the geometry of the part, the better robots and automated polishing systems will be compared to manual polishing efforts. Robots are pre-programmed to automatically polish every surface of the part in a quick and timely manner, which is ideal for a large number of complex pieces. Because robots don’t understand everything, manual touch ups are done after the automatic polishing process. This process is great for small runs and prototypes.

Contact Bend Plating for more information about our automatic polishing systems and how they could work for your metal polishing requirements.