Ballcones or Satellites (variously called saturn, sputnik, planet, UFO) are mixed with round steel ball and other steel burnishing media (diagonail, pin, eclipse) to achieve overall cleaning, consistent metal polishing and excellent mirror finish all over the component profile.

Functionality of Ballcones: Steel round ball is the most widely used shape in steel media. However, it is not always versatile, as a sphere cannot acceess corners. It is also unable to make contact in grooves or recesses if the steel ball diameter is larger than the groove width. In such cases, milky areas become apparent on the component surface where balls are unable to provide polishiong action.Steel ballcone and satellite works very well in such areas for providing uniform finishing results. These steel ballcones are also useful for preventing media clogging in the components being polished.

Steel Material: Stainless steel or inox media, 300 series (typically AISI 304) is the one which is most widely used for metal polishing. It has excellent resistance to rust, corrosion and wear and can be used in conjunction with chemically aggressive burnishing compounds, both acidic and alkaline. Stainless steel requires no maintenance or after care during storage, non usage or idle periods. The burnishing performance remains consitent over long periods of time and it does not require replacement as no deterioration in quality takes place. The 300 series stainless steel are austenitic and are unhardenable by heat treatment. However, some work-hardening takes place during the cold-forging process. The media is passivated after final polish.

Chrome Steel media has low corrosion resistance and does not offer the advantages of stainless media. It is useful where cost saving is a major cosideration or where trial or limited burnishing runs are required. When not in use, chrome media have to be protected against rust with appropriate chemical compounds to avoid pitting and surface wear and achieve consistent burnishing results. The chrome steel media are thorough hardened to 58-63 HRc.