Patent ID: 8524035

Claim:
A conformable polishing apparatus, comprising: a conveyor upon which a plurality of workpieces may be releasably coupled for moving the workpieces laterally past a rotary polisher one workpiece at a time in a continuous process, wherein the rotary polisher has a resiliently conformable annular polishing pad mounted thereon for contacting and resiliently conforming to a surface of a workpiece coupled to the conveyor and a polishing slurry supply conduit having an outlet located at a center of the annular polishing pad for supplying polishing slurry to a surface of a workpiece, the annular polishing pad having an outer diameter and an inner diameter that is larger than a width or diameter of a workpiece coupled to the conveyor such that the annular polishing substantially uniformly removes material from the entire surface of the workpieces as the workpieces move past the polisher.