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2008
Conference Paper
Titel
Development of a force controlled polishing tool
Abstract
The introduced concept of a force controlled polishing tool with a precise resolution is currently not available on the market and offers great potential for use in other force controlled, high precision applications. This paper describes the mechanical setup of the tool including the used and designed components as well as the significant development steps. The share of complex shaped optical elements in consumer products grows continuously. In order to ensure an economically reasonable production, these optical components are often produced using plastic injection molding or embossing of glass. Considering the high precision requirements regarding surface quality and form accuracies of the needed mold cavities, the Fraunhofer IPT developed an adaptable polishing head which is capable of precise polishing and zonal correction of surfaces using its kinematic degrees of freedom. This polishing head allows the adjustment of process factors such as free heterodyne velocity profiles and variable force adjustment. Technological investigations have shown that the polishing force in particular has an essential influence on the material removal rate. The required force resolution accuracy is thereby within a range of 0.2 N. Therefore a new force measuring polishing tool was developed, which can be used to determine the polishing force directly at the process-site.