Design of integrated-electrode tool for electrorheological finishing of optical glasses

Abstract

Electrorheological (ER) finishing utilizes the flow of electrically stiffened abrasive fluid through a preset converging gap formed by the work-piece surface and a moving tool. An ER finishing tool characterized by cathode integrated with anode together is proposed, whose electric field distribution is finite-element-analyzed (FEA) and is useful to finish both conductive work-piece and non-conductive ones. Experiments were performed to finish a K9 glass by this tool. After 30 minutes polishing, the surface roughness was reduced from 8.46 to 2.53 nm Ra which is better than previously reported 2.9 nm. The result verified the validity of the integrated-electrodes tool for non-conductive optical glasses.

Improved Electrorheological Polishing Property of Poly(Ionic Liquid)/Al2O3 Composite Particles Prepared via Pickering Emulsion Polymerization

“…used ER polishing to polish tungsten carbide and invented an integrated tool for a five-axis ER polishing tool. , Lu et al studied the ER polishing properties of a tiny grinding wheel . Chen, et al designed an integrated electrode tool for ER polishing of optical glasses . Zhao et al studied the combined process of micro-EDM and ER polishing .…”

“…17 Chen, et al designed an integrated electrode tool for ER polishing of optical glasses. 18 Zhao et al studied the combined process of micro-EDM and ER polishing. 19 Su et al fabricated a wheel-like ER polishing tool to polish small parts.…”

Review of several precision finishing processes for optics manufacturing

“…As a result, electric field strength changes which leads to the possibility of unstable and non-uniform material removal. 77…”

“…To overcome this limitation, an advanced ER tool by incorporating cathode and anode together was developed by Chen et al 77 The schematic diagram of this tool is shown in Figure 14. The tool tip diameter is maintained within 1 mm and the edge of the tool must be round-shaped to avoid electric charge concentration at the edge.…”

“…By volume, 35.2% starch particles, 52.8% silicone oil and 12% CeO 2 particles are used to make the ER-polishing fluid slurry for this study. 77 Processing of different materials by ERF and major finding of the reported works are mentioned in Table 5.…”