Manufacturing of free-Form Surfaces using a Fast Tool Servo (FTS)

摘要

High-precision and ultra-precision machining are the key technologies in the manufacture of high-precision surfaces with tolerances in the submicron range. In addition to rotationally symmetric geometries, more and more non-rotationally symmetric surface geometries are required. Examples are eye glasses, laser mirrors and micro structured surfaces. In this context the research activities of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre "Process Chains for the Replication of Complex Optical Elements" SFB/TR4 carried out of the Universities of Aachen, Bremen and Stillwater (USA) have the objective to lay the scientific foundations for a deterministic and economic mass production of optical components with complex geometries, e.g. aspheric, non-rotational asymmetric or micro structured surfaces eventually superimposed on free-form geometries. For the manufacturing of free form surfaces by diamond turning using a fast tool servo system a NURBS (Non Uniform Rational B-Splines) based online trajectory generator was developed (1). The paper presents the layout of the online tool path calculation as well as results of the manufacturing of a free-form surface.