Octopus is an automatic polishing tool for symmetric goods.
It is the result of the "blocking tang" project and it was designed to prepare the bruted stone for the brillanteer.

The Octopus consists of a tang and a base. The base is fixed mounted on the mill. Per mill a maximum of 4 tangs can be installed. The base lowers and lifts the tang to and from the scaife, and moves the tang from left to right to obtain the whole diamond stroke on the scaife.
Octopus has a grain-seeking system, active throughout the entire polishing process, and automatically adjusting the polishing direction. Once the pre-set polishing depth is attained, the next facet is polished as the tang automatically lifts and clicks.
Octopus is a polishing-tool, not a polishing unit. The total set-up, such as the polishing mill, scaife and drive motor can influence the whole concept. All tests with the Octopus were performed on mills with direct drive (type Coborn) on a diamond scaife and connected to a dust-evaporating system. We deliver the system separately or completely installed on benches with motor and emergency brake.

When the Octopus-system was released a few years ago, it was only suitable to all kind of round goods, which can be placed in a classic diamond holder like the press-pot. The size of the diamonds can vary from 3 to 12 mm diameter, or from a finished weight of 0,10 up to 5 carat. There were no restrictions to the nature of goods to be polished. Both sawable and makeable goods, with or without "naat" can be polished by Octopus.

Since the development of different tangs for different stages of the polishing process, and for not only round goods, the Octopus is much more used for other purposes.
Dops being developed:

• Accurate setting of the facet-depth
• Table polishing: table pot with nut or press-pot system
• Table polishing: AC system (settings of the stone out of the tang)
• Table-facet polishing with adjustable angle
• Tang for rough: claw dop
• Bottom polishing
• Top polishing with telescopic grif-holder
• Holders for big stones – up to 35 carats – for tops and bottoms
• Holders for square shapes with angles up to 58°
  

To set the values to be polished, a setting unit with a camera and monitor is developed.
On the setting unit you can:

• control the alignment of the tang
• determine the polishing depth
• make a choice for the number of facets, from 1 to 16 facets
• make a choice between top or bottom
• make a choice for the type of diamonds 2pt – 3pt – 4pt – polycrystalline

One of the biggest advantage of the Octopus-system is the fact that it is very suitable for stones with high tension. The load on the stone remains the same throughout the whole polishing process and is only created by the weight of the tang. The user cannot increase or decrease the load on the stone, but the system itself will look for another polishing direction as soon as insufficient polishing criteria are reached. So very safe for even the most dangerous stones.
This and the future development of more dops is definitely meaning that the Octopus-system is not only for blocking tops and bottoms of round goods.