So what happened to this lens grinding machine??

University of Rochester
Rochester, New York

NEW MACHINE SLASHES TIME, COST TO MAKE UNIQUE LENSES
May 7, 1998
Engineers from the University of Rochester and seven corporate
partners, working with the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), have developed the first system to
automate the manufacture of unusually shaped lenses known as aspheres.
Officials at the University's Center for Optics Manufacturing (COM)
say the machine is capable of producing these aspheric lenses in
minutes, not days, at a fraction of the current cost.

Its developers say the savings in time and money should trickle down
to products ranging from 35-millimeter cameras and medical endoscopes
to military-grade night-vision goggles. High costs -- up to $4,000 for
a meticulously formed, doorknob-sized piece of glass -- have limited
the use of aspheres, despite their ability to deliver much better
optical performance and image quality than traditional spherical
lenses. The new asphere machining system greatly streamlines
production; engineers believe the machine will push costs down to as
little as $25 to $100 per lens.

"There isn't an optical device around that wouldn't benefit from
aspheres," says Harvey Pollicove, director of COM, which is now
testing the new machine. "Aspheres are used in nearly every
application for which they're affordable, and every engineer who
designs optical devices wants to use them."

Aspheres are well suited for a wide range of consumer goods, including
compact disk players, photocopiers, and projection televisions;
top-rated cameras and video camcorders now rely on three or four
aspheres to achieve lightweight, compact designs with improved image
quality. Beyond the consumer realm, aspheres are also used in virtual
reality helmets, professional-quality movie cameras, surgical lasers,
bar-code laser scanners, and in endoscopes to see inside the body. The
new machine might also provide a cheaper way to produce aspheric
elements that are found in the $500,000 lenses now used to make
computer chips by tracing out integrated circuits on wafers of
silicon.

"Aspheres are better than spherical lenses in these applications
because they bend light rays more precisely," says President Donald
Golini of Rochester optics firm QED Technologies, which was not part
of the consortium that developed the asphere grinder.

An aspherical lens or mirror focuses incoming rays to a single point,
while spherical lenses cause blurring. "For example," says Golini, "if
you were to build a reflective telescope with a spherical primary
mirror, and use it to look at a star far away, the starlight striking
the edge of the mirror would focus at a different spot than the light
striking the mirror's center. You'd actually need additional
corrective optics to reduce this aberration, which is normally avoided
altogether in telescopes through the use of aspheric mirrors."

Since it focuses light more precisely, a single asphere can take the
place of two or more spherical elements in many optical devices, such
as night-vision goggles worn by soldiers. Replacing bulky groupings of
three or four spherical lenses with an asphere or two would make the
goggles 30 percent smaller and lighter, Pollicove says, while also
boosting image quality and resolution.

But aspheres' subtly irregular curves make them a real chore to
produce. Most of today's manufacturers use a process Golini describes
as "home-grown," rigging up expensive machines like high-precision
lathes for double-duty as asphere grinders. The final painstaking
round of hand-smoothing, known as "lapping," done by specialized
artisans, can take hours or even days. "There's now no efficient way,
and certainly no single machine, for making high-precision ground
aspheres from start to finish," Golini says.

Many companies sidestep these difficulties by using mass- produced
molded plastic or small glass aspheres in their optical products. But
plastic aspheres are susceptible to heat and humidity, and molding
limits their glass counterparts to a diameter of about an inch. Even
before reaching the mass-production stage, companies often spend
hundreds of thousands of dollars creating asphere prototypes the
old-fashioned way; Golini expects that much of the demand for the new
grinder will actually come from large companies that spend heavily on
hand-crafted templates while developing new products.

"Since this new system will reduce initial tooling costs, it will make
all plastic and glass molded aspheres more affordable, and it's much
better suited to the task of producing high-precision aspheres than
any of the previous techniques," Pollicove says.

A technician can just plunk a piece of glass into the new machine,
plug the desired curvature of the final lens into the machine's
computer, and let the of diamonds embedded in its two bronze grinding
wheels go to work. Using a first-of-its-kind measuring system to
ensure that precision shape requirements are met, the computer
alternates between measuring the lens and manipulating the grinding
wheels that sculpt it. A regular ball-bearing spindle spins the rough
grinding wheel to quickly shape the lens, and then an advanced spindle
that floats a fine grinding wheel on a cushion of air produces an
almost polished finish. The machine's built-in measuring system can
then automatically feed relevant data to a magnetorheological
finishing device for a final round of ultra-smooth polishing. Total
time required: roughly 15 to 30 minutes.

"We've incorporated several new technologies into this machine," says
Kevin Uhlig, vice president of machinery systems at Bridgeport,
Conn.-based Moore Tool Company, the firm that actually built the new
asphere grinder. "It's the first machine to fully automate asphere
production; earlier machines couldn't muster the precision needed to
shape aspherical lenses. It's also the first to successfully tackle
the final round of smoothing, typically done by hand."

The machining system, designed by a consortium consisting of COM,
Moore, Byelocorp Scientific, Raytheon TI Systems, Eastman Kodak,
Opkor, Lockheed Martin, and OptiPro Systems, and funded partly by
DARPA, is expected to sell for about $250,000 -- roughly $100,000 less
than the cost of the techniques now used to produce aspheres. COM is
currently testing the wardrobe-sized, computer-controlled grinder, and
Moore will begin selling the machine later this year.

A technician can just plunk a piece of glass into the new machine,
plug the desired curvature of the final lens into the machine's
computer, and let the of diamonds embedded in its two bronze grinding
wheels go to work.

I have one. I've had it for more than 7 years. It was made by Optipro and it
can generate any kind of aspherical surface in minutes, very accurately. It can
also generate any kind of sphere in minutes. It can handle up to 14" diameters.
There is really nothing new in this announcement except the development of new
software that allows for easier technician input. I get these announcements
every month or so and periodically go up there to see what they are doing.
Astro-Physics is a member of this group, by the way.

The new machine is somewhat more focused on making small aspheres quickly, for
things like military optics.

My machine can grind any kind of asphere with surfaces that are transparent,
ready for final polishing and a surface accuracy of 1/2 to 2 waves, depending
on the size. A similar machine to mine has been in use at Optimax in Webster
N.Y. for the past 10 years to generate an ultra-aspheric lens for laser
applications.

There is no astronomical application that can use the output of this machine
directly.

Roland Christen

"Chris1011" wrote in message
...
A technician can just plunk a piece of glass into the new machine,
plug the desired curvature of the final lens into the machine's
computer, and let the of diamonds embedded in its two bronze grinding
wheels go to work.

I have one. I've had it for more than 7 years. It was made by Optipro and
it
can generate any kind of aspherical surface in minutes, very accurately.
It can
also generate any kind of sphere in minutes. It can handle up to 14"
diameters.
There is really nothing new in this announcement except the development of
new
software that allows for easier technician input. I get these
announcements
every month or so and periodically go up there to see what they are doing.
Astro-Physics is a member of this group, by the way.



Umm, wasn't this just dealt with above? Is QED using the same macine from
1997?
QED produces lamda/20 quality on astronomical grade lenses.

www.qedmrf.com

QED produces lamda/20 quality on astronomical grade lenses.

I wasn't aware that QED made astronomical grade lenses. What kind of lens is
that anyhow, and where can I buy one, some?

Roland Christen

chris1011 wrote:
There is no astronomical application that can use the output
of this machine directly.


Is that because it is good to only 1/2 wave ?


Howie

Is that because it is good to only 1/2 wave ?
Howie

Hi Howie,

No, actually I have yet to find a person willing to buy a ground lens except
for IR applications. Just about everyone wants a polished one, and my CNC
aspheric grinder does only grinding.

Roland Christen

You are confusing.


Perhaps you are confused.

RC

On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 14:35:59 GMT, "Mickelaneous"
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email


Just from the sidelines. So are you.

You are confusing.


************************************************** ** sorry

..........no I'm not!
remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Does Bill Gates dream of electronic sheep?

On 11 Mar 2004 14:42:36 GMT, (Chris1011) vaguely
proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Then you seem not to have the machine talked about in the OP, which
polished as well.

No, actually I have yet to find a person willing to buy a ground lens except
for IR applications. Just about everyone wants a polished one, and my CNC
aspheric grinder does only grinding.

Roland Christen


************************************************** ** sorry

..........no I'm not!
remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Does Bill Gates dream of electronic sheep?

"Chris1011" wrote in message
...
You are confusing.


Perhaps you are confused.

RC

I don't think you are RC at all. The real RC should be hard at work filling
huge backlogs
of AP buyers that wait months or years for their telescopes and should have
no time for this BS on SAA.

Mickelaneous