Manufacturing structured tool inserts for precision glass moulding with a combination of diamond grinding and abrasive polishing

Precision glass moulding can efficiently be used for serial production of complex glass components for the optical industry. For mould inserts hard and high temperature resistant materials like ceramics and cemented carbides are used. These brittle materials are very difficult to machine. Especially filigree structured tool inserts cannot be machined in optical quality by ultra precise diamond milling or turning. Diamond profile grinding and subsequent abrasive profile polishing are capable of producing the necessary high shape accuracy and optical surface quality. Thus, for mould making, a novel process chain consisting of diamond profile grinding with electro discharge trueing and dressing and machine-based abrasive profile polishing is presented in this article by F. Klocke, E. Brinksmeier, O. Riemer, A. Klink, H. Schulte and H. Sarikaya. Finally, the successful application in the glass replication for the production of a cylindrical lens array is shown. This type of array is used industrially for beam collimation of diode lasers.