Flexible Automated Finishing of Non-Axisymmetric Precision Optics

Cylindrical non-axisymmetric optical components are becoming increasingly important to both commercial and military applications. Current manufacturing methods are very labor intensive and require dedicated tooling. This resulted in a major shift of manufacturing base to off shore manufacturers. Recent advances in Deterministics Microgrinding of spherical surfaces demonstrate that specular surfaces can be produced at low costs and short leadtime. Fabrication and finishing of cylinders using Deterministic Microgrinding will provide the ability to produce cylindrical optics in time frames never before possible at costs well below current values. Successful implementation of this technology will help regain the lost leadership in this sector of the optics industry. This proposal will determine the feasibility of applying DMG & Finishing to produce cylindrical non-axisymmetric optical surfaces. The first series of tasks will address issues of motion. Then different removal patterns will be predicted for various tool movements. The second series of tasks are focused around the study of how the machining center, work holding and cutting tool configurations can change the demands on the mechanical components that will constrain the movements. The last set of tasks will model the findings of the first tasks and compare predicted with simulation and experimental results.