Study on Optical polishing of optical glass by means of ultrasonic-

magnetorheological compound finishing

Huijun Wang＊, Feihu Zhang, Hang Zhao, Dianrong Luan, Yachun Chen
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology,
BOX 422, West Dazhi Street 92, Harbin, China, 150001
ABSTRACT
The paper reports a newly developed optical polishing process by means of ultrasonic-magnetorheological compound
finishing (UMC finishing). The machining principle and the experimental procedure of UMC finishing are introduced in
the paper for the first time. Experiments are carried out to study the material removal property in UMC finishing of
optical glass. The polishing head in UMC finishing is adjusted for different positions to form different angles between its
own spindle axis and that of t workpiece during polishing. Experimental results show that the shape of material removal
profile changes with the angle. The shape of material removal profile of UMC finishing when the polishing head is
oblique is more desirable than the ring-shaped one when the polishing head is vertical. Furthermore, the surface
roughness is also analyzed.
Keywords: Aspheric surfaces, Material removal, Ultrasonic-magnetorheological compound finishing, Ultrasonic
polishing, Magnetorheological finishing, Polishing, Ultraprecision machining

1. INTRODUCTION
Ultraprecision machining of aspheric surfaces has always been a great challenge to optical fabrication industry with the
rapid development of modern optical technology. In this paper, a new kind of polishing method, i.e., ultrasonic-
magnetorheological compound finishing (UMC finishing) is proposed by the authors, which offers a new way to
fabricate ultraprecision aspheric surfaces of the optical elements, especially to fabricate ultraprecision small-radiused
concave surfaces and freeform surfaces of the optical elements. UMC finishing is enlightened from the theories of the
following two methods, one is magnetorheological finishing (MRF), which has been successfully developed by the
Center for Optics Manufacturing (COM) in Rochester University and QED Technology Inc. in U.S.A.1-3, the other is
ultrasonic polishing4,5. UMC finishing possesses the advantages of the two polishing methods. Materials can be removed
in small spots in the process of UMC finishing. Therefore, UMC finishing can be applied to the polishing of small-
radiused concave surface.
In previous studies, some experiments have been carried out to compare the polishing efficiency of the new method with
the conventional MRF process6. The model of material removal rate of optical glass K9 in UMC finishing has also been
discussed in our previous work7.

2. MECHANICS OF UMC FINISHING

The principle of UMC finishing is illustrated in Fig. 1, in which a small-radiused polishing head is used. Right after the
workpiece is fixed properly, magnetorheological fluid is delivered to the polishing head to form a flexible polishing tool
when the magnetic field with flux density B is applied to the polishing head. Vertical ultrasonic vibration is applied to
the polishing head simultaneously, so the ultrasonic vibration energy is applied to the polishing zone directly to improve
the polishing efficiency of optical elements by the co-action of magnetic field. Since small-radiused polishing head is
used in UMC finishing, the nanometer-scaled polishing of both small-radiused concave surface and freeform surface can
be realized. The polishing efficiency can be improved by the application of ultrasonic vibration.

＊hj_wang2003@yahoo.com.cn; phone +86-451-8641-3657; fax +86-451-8641-3657

3rd International Symp. on Advanced Optical Manufac. and Testing Tech.: Advanced Optical
Manufacturing Technologies, edited by Li Yang, Yaolong Chen, Ernst-Bernhard Kley, Rongbin Li,
Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6722, 67221P, (2007) · 0277-786X/07/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.783019

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 polishing head polishing head
Z Z
magnetorheo- magnetorheo- n1
n1 logical fluid logical fluid
ultrasonic
vibration
workpiece workpiece
B
ultrasonic vibration B

Y n2 X
Y n2 X
(a) Scheme of UMC finishing of flat/convex (b) Scheme of UMC finishing of concave
surfaces surfaces

Figure 1: Scheme of mechanics of UMC finishing.

Fig. 1 (a) is the scheme of UMC finishing of flat/convex surfaces. The polishing head can not only vibrate vertically with
ultrasonic frequency, but also rotate simultaneously on its own spindle axis with the speed n1. There is a small
controllable gap between the polishing head and the workpiece, where magnetorheological fluid can form a flexible
polishing tool by the gradient magnetic field. The workpiece rotates on its own spindle axis with the speed n2, which is in
contrary direction to n1. Therefore, a shearing force is generated in the polishing zone, and the material is removed from
the surface of the workpiece. Ultrasonic vibration can improve the polishing efficiency at the same time. The whole
surface is polished by the linear motion of the workpiece on the horizontal plane. Fig. 1 (b) is the scheme of UMC
finishing of concave surface. There is an extra oscillation motion in the polishing head when polishing concave surface
compared with Fig. 1 (a). Hence, the axis of the polishing head can be at some angle to that of the workpiece to realize
the polishing of concave surface.

3. EXPERIMENTS
Fig. 2 is the scheme of polishing zone of UMC finishing. The shape of the end of the polishing head is spherical. The
polishing head is ultrasonically vibrating in the vertical direction, and magnetic field is simultaneously applied with
some flux density B. n1 is the rotational speed of the polishing head, h0 is the minimum distance between the polishing
head and the workpiece, Φ is the angle between the axis of the polishing tool and that of the workpiece, R is the radius of
the end of the polishing head and x is the distance from the centre of polished zone to the polished point.
Magnetorheological fluid with abrasives is pumped through the nozzle to come into the polishing zone, and will be
pumped out of the tank after polishing. Therefore, the heat and debris produced by the process can be removed by the
continuous slurry flow.
z
工具头 head
polishing
n1
nozzle
磁流变液
magnetorheological fluid
Ф

R
超声振动 vibration
ultrasonic
ho x
B workpiece
工件

pump tank

Figure 2: Scheme of the polishing zone of UMC finishing.

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 Experiments are carried out on flat workpieces made of optical glass to study the change of the shape of material
removal profile in UMC finishing when Φ is changed from 0° to 20°. Other experimental conditions, such as magnetic
flux density, ultrasonic vibration frequency, polishing time, and so on remain the same as illustrated in Table 1.
Table 1: Experiment conditions of UMC finishing.

Experiment Conditions Corresponding Value

Workpiece material K9 optical glass

Abrasive CeO2

Vibration frequency 20[KHz]

Minimum distance between the tool and the workpiece surface 0.3[mm]

Magnetic flux density 1500[Gs]

Rotational speed of the tool 280[r/min]

Polishing time 20[min]

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Fig. 3 shows the material removal profile (the scan along the diameter of the polishing spot) of UMC finishing spots
when Φ is 0° measured by a profile meter (Form Talysurf PGI 1240). The vertical coordinate is the material removal
depth, while the horizontal coordinate is the value of x. Fig. 4, Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 show the measured material removal
profiles of UMC finishing spots when Φ is 5°,10° and 20° respectively.
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Figure 3: Measured material removal profile of UMC finishing Figure 4: Measured material removal profile of UMC finishing
when Φ=0°. when Φ=5°.
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7- 417771777007100071 1107 1700701077 707100

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Figure 5: Measured material removal profile of UMC finishing Figure 6: Measured material removal profile of UMC finishing

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 when Φ=10°. when Φ=20°.

There are two equivalent peak-valleys as shown in Fig. 3, and the material removal profile is ring-shaped like the letter
of W, when Φ is 0° in UMC finishing. The maximum material removal depth is 2.7790µm, which does not occur at the
center of the polishing spots. The shape of material removal profile changes when Φ is 5°, the two peak-valleys are not
equivalent, one is deeper than the other as shown in Fig. 4. The maximum material removal depth is 2.8554µm, which
does not occur at the center of the polishing spots either. As shown in Fig. 5, the right peak-valley is not very distinct in
UMC finishing when Φ is 10°. The maximum material removal depth is 3.1466µm, which occurs offset the center of the
polishing spots. The shape of material removal profile changes into letter V with only one peak-valley existing in the
center of polishing spots in UMC finishing when Φ is 20° as shown in Fig. 6. The maximum material removal depth is
6.1017µm. It can be concluded that the shape of the material removal profile can change with the angle Φ. In optical
fabrication, it is necessary to obtain a material removal function that has a maximum at the center and minimum at the
edge of the polishing spots according to the Preston empirical equation. Therefore, the V-shaped material removal profile
in UMC finishing when Φ is 20° is ideal in optical polishing.
The surface qualities of the four cases are also studied. Fig. 7 shows the surface roughness of the polished flat workpiece
in UMC finishing when Φ is 0°, measured by the profile meter mentioned above. Fig. 8, Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 show the
surface roughness in UMC finishing when Φ is 5°, 10° and 20° respectively.
Moarfied Profile I- P050,5 1501 55000 00 OLS Lee 0000501007105554
-0 555l5d00500P0l bIOS 0 000 50 17 07 00 50 51

hi ror•

H-,l0nr -rh-rh.
-IbI

Figure 7: Measured surface roughness of UMC finishing Figure 8: Measured surface roughness of UMC finishing
when Φ=0°. when Φ=5°.
Moarhed Profile i- RodeO 2lee 0.0 3! IOQS Lr cc 111002007162010 Model 10Il9 I - 1440U 2t[llrll4IILlLSLll1e Uod1211(fi) 110 SOil
2- 4Oeee5100orOPGI l240 1110512007 162330 0 -0 lmllAdll! re?0l 1240 09ffl302927 193011
eel

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Figure 9: Measured surface roughness of UMC finishing Figure 10: Measured surface roughness of UMC finishing
when Φ=10°. when Φ=20°.

As shown in Figure7 to Figure 10, the results of the four surface roughness Ra are 4.0 nm, 4.3 nm, 4.2 nm and 3.9 nm
respectively. The surface roughness results are almost about Ra 4.0 nm, without too much variation in the four cases.
Therefore, the surface roughness does not change with the angle Φ.

5. CONCLUSIONS

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 Based on the experiments, the profiles of material removal in UMC finishing of optical glass are obtained by adjusting
the position of the polishing head. It can be concluded that the shape of the material removal profile changes when there
exists some angle Φ between the axis of the polishing tool and that of the workpiece in UMC finishing,. The shape of the
material removal profile is like the letter W when Φ is 0°. The shape of the material removal profile is like the letter V
when Φ is 20°, which avoids the disadvantages of the W-shaped one and is more desirable in optical fabrication. The
results of surface roughness are of little variation. Achieving an ideal material removal function profile makes UMC
finishing a promising polishing method.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank both the National Natural Science Fundation of China (Project No. 50575059) and the
Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (Project No.20050213040) for their financial
support to the project.

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