No abstract

The calculation of the dwell time plays a crucial role in polishing precision large optics. Although some studies have taken place, it remains a challenge to develop a calculation algorithm which is absolutely stable, together with a high convergence ratio and fast solution speed even for extremely large mirrors. For this aim, we introduced a self-adaptive iterative algorithm to calculate the dwell time in this paper. Simulations were conducted in bonnet polishing (BP) to test the performance of this method on a real 430  mm × 430  mm fused silica part with the initial surface error PV=1741.29  nm, RMS=433.204  nm. The final surface residual error in the clear aperture after two simulation steps turned out to be PV=11.7  nm, RMS=0.5  nm. The results confirm that this method is stable and has a high convergence ratio and fast solution speed even with an ordinary computer. It is notable that the solution time is usually just a few seconds even on a 1000  mm × 1000  mm part. Hence, we believe that this method is perfectly suitable for polishing large optics. And not only can it be applied to BP, but it can also be applied to other subaperture deterministic polishing processes.

No abstract

With the rapid development of precision technologies, the demand of high-precision optical surfaces has drastically increased. These optical surfaces are mainly fabricated with computer controlled optical surfacing (CCOS). In a CCOS process, a target surface removal profile is achieved by scheduling the dwell time for a set of machine tools. The optimized dwell time should be positive and smooth to ensure convergence to the target while considering CNC dynamics. The total run time of each machine tool is also expected to be balanced to improve the overall processing efficiency. In the past few decades, dwell time optimization for a single machine tool has been extensively developed. While the methods are applicable to multi-tool scenarios, they fail to consider the overall contributions of multiple tools simultaneously. In this paper, we conduct a systematic study on the strategies for multi-tool dwell time optimization and propose an innovative method for simultaneously scheduling dwell time for multiple tools for the first time. First, the influential factors to the positiveness and smoothness of dwell time solutions for a single machine tool are analyzed. The compensation strategies that minimize the residual while considering the CNC dynamics limit are then proposed. Afterwards, these strategies are extended to the proposed multi-tool optimization that further balances the run time of machine tools. Finally, the superiority of each strategy is carefully studied via simulation and experiment. The experiment is performed by bonnet polishing a 60 mm × 60 mm mirror with three tools of different diameters (i.e., 12 mm, 8 mm, and 5 mm). The figure error of the mirror is reduced from 45.42 nm to 11.18 nm root mean square in 13.28 min. Moreover, the measured polishing result well coincides with the estimation, which proves the effectiveness of the proposed method.