Nonisothermal glass molding for the cost-efficient production of precision freeform optics

Glass molding has become a key replication-based technology to satisfy intensively growing demands of complex precision optics in the today's photonic market. However, the state-of-The-Art replicative technologies are still limited, mainly due to their insufficiency to meet the requirements of mass production. This paper introduces a newly developed nonisothermal glass molding in which a complex-shaped optic is produced in a very short process cycle. The innovative molding technology promises a cost-efficient production because of increased mold lifetime, less energy consumption, and high throughput from a fast process chain. At the early stage of the process development, the research focuses on an integration of finite element simulation into the process chain to reduce time and labor-intensive cost. By virtue of numerical modeling, defects including chill ripples and glass sticking in the nonisothermal molding process can be predicted and the consequent effects are avoided.