Aspheric optical surface polishing tool with individually movable polishing pads

摘要

A tool for smoothing or polishing an optical surface 35 comprises a rotatable body part 6 and a plurality of abrasive pads (26 fig 6) arranged in an array and biased towards said optical surface 35 and each mounted linear movement relative to said body part 6 in a direction substantially normal to said surface 35 and universal pivotal movement relative to said body part 6. The pads (26 fig 6) may be mounted on a flexible membrane (36 fig 10) or each pad (26 fig 6) may be universally articulated on a distal end of a piston 18 which can reciprocate in a bore 17 formed in the body part 6, at its proximal end each piston 18 may be biased by a spring (24 fig 6). The universal articulation of the pads (26 fig 6) may be provided by ball joints of flexible adhesive (28, 29, 30 fig. 6) or spherical bearings. The array of pads may be planar, convex (fig. 8) or concave (fig. 9). Lubricating fluid such as compressed air may be fed through bores 16, (31, 33 fig 6) in the body part 6 and pistons 18.