Ultra-fine grinding of silicate materials under the use of new resin bond diamond tools

摘要

The fabrication of high-quality optical components involves great effort. Polishing often functions as the final step in a manufacturing chain. To reduce the conventionally time-consuming, complex polishing process with loose grain, an interesting approach with novel resin bond grinding tools is presented for surface smoothing. Various processing-experiments were carried out, regarding different silicate materials such as BK7? and fused silica. Among other results it is shown, that good surface qualities with low roughness down to R_a = 8 nm or R_q = 10 nm can be achieved so far, a quality that already allows speaking of "ultra-fine" grinding. This results in remarkable possibilities to reduce conventional fine-machining procedures with loose abrasives. The fine grinded components can directly be polished to finally smooth the surface and remove remaining defects. Total-processing-times can be strongly reduced, involving significant economic advantages.