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2008
Conference Paper
Titel
Investigations to the molding accuracy of complex shaped glass components
Abstract
Precision glass molding is a compression molding technology which has become a widely used manufacturing process for complex shaped plies. In comparison to conventional machining technologies such as grinding and polishing the glass parts are formed in one process step. After heating up the raw parts and moulds, the glass is pressed in isothermal conditions under a specified load into its final shape. This technology permits the rapid and economical production of micro structured optical components, for example cylindrical lens arrays for usage as slow axis coilimator or micro lens arrays for beam homogenizing applications. Despite the wide distribution of this technology, there is little understanding of the fundamental influencing parameters on the molding result. In this paper, the influence of the molding parameters on the accuracy of complex shaped optical components will be presented. Furthermore the technological limitations of precision glass molding processes in terms of shape complexity will be discussed based on molding experiments with v-shaped and rectangular grooved mold inserts.