Starting out with PEEK

Here’s a selection of machined PEEK spinal implants from Invibio.

If you machine medical implant components, then you’re either 1) already machining PEEK polymer or 2) soon will be. That’s because the medical industry has found medical-grade PEEK (aka polyetheretherketone) offers excellent strength, wear resistance and biocompatibility for parts like the spinal implants shown above.

This story I wrote offers some advice about machining the material. I recently added cutting data to the end of the piece that might be helpful to those who are working to dial in their PEEK machining processes. It recommends speeds, feeds and tool geometries for natural PEEK and carbon-fiber-reinforced PEEK.

If you’ve encountered some tough new material to machine, and you feel there’s not enough helpful info out there about it, let me know. Perhaps it’s something we should cover in Modern Machine Shop.