Deterministic Microgrinding of Aspheres

The Moore Asphere Grinder was designed and built by Moore Tool (Bridgeport, CT) with inputs from the COM-led Machine Technical Advisory Board. The scope of this latest COM machine development project was to design and build a cost effective, high precision machine that would deterministically microgrind aspheric optical components in brittle optical glass materials. The ground surfaces had to be compatible with COM and QED-developed magnetorheological finishing processes. Moore Tool’s design goals were to design a machine dedicated to grinding aspheres up to 100mm in diameter in a production environment (see page 2 for machine specifications). With the new capabilities of this grinder and the magnetorheological finishing process, COM’s goal was to demonstrate a 10x reduction in the cost of asphere fabrication.