Award Recipients

Polishing machine manufacturer Zeeko is one of only five entrants this year to win two King’s Awards for Enterprise, Innovation and International Trade. Founded in 2000, the company is a global leader in the development and production of 7-axis CNC machines for polishing complex, ultra-high-precision, freeform glass optics and other material surfaces. Each year the company spends a minimum of 20% of annual sales revenue on R&D.

The 2024 award for Innovation stems from the chance discovery of a new technology that is extremely effective for the polishing and finishing of very hard materials, including tungsten carbide, CVD-coated silicon carbide, ceramic and tough metals. Products such as turbine blades, orthopaedic implants, precision moulds and ball valve components may be readily processed, as can the relatively rough exterior of additively manufactured components.

Called Shape Adaptive Grinding (SAG), the technique utilises a low-cost, robotic machining platform together with associated tools. Housed in a separate factory in Coalville, Zeeko Industrial is a new division that has been established to build and market the robotic polishing cells worldwide. To realise the project, a computer-aided manufacturing software package was developed, a remote calibration instrument invented and a manufacturing line built for producing polishing tools, which additionally may be used on any CNC machine tool such as a milling centre or multi-tasking lathe.

The material removal process utilises a flexible, diamond-impregnated pad, a compliant, dwell time grinding action and regular, abrasive-free coolant. The interface between the pad and workpiece is carefully controlled so that instead of chips breaking from the material surface by brittle fracture, a ductile relationship is formed that leaves a polished, shiny surface instead of one that is dull grey.

Richard Freeman, MD of Zeeko, says: “We will always be grateful to the engineer in our research centre in Japan who, after observing an unexpectedly shiny finish appear after grinding the surface of a piece of silicon carbide, refused to dismiss it as a random event. His investigation ultimately led to the introduction of the SAG dwell time grinding and polishing process that we are now selling into world markets.”

The 2024 award for international trade is a result of a sharp upturn in these original specialist activities, plus additional sales in the last three years of new machine platforms and tools for mainstream industrial use. The latter is referenced later in this magazine in connection with Zeeko’s other King’s Award, for innovation.
Exports account for about 98% of machine production, with key overseas markets being Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea, followed by the USA, Canada, Mexico and continental Europe. Order intake is currently between £10 million and £12 million per year, compared with well below £2 million during the pandemic. Zeeko is not only generating its best sales ever, but current growth figures are higher than anticipated.
Richard Freeman, MD of Zeeko, says: “We are delighted to receive two King’s Awards this year. Our highly skilled and innovative team deserves this recognition. A high-technology manufacturing enterprise rarely leads its competition by more than 18 months, so we are continually researching and innovating, both to protect our lead and to grow our business.”