A..

reportedby FRANK COOKE,66 SummerStreet,North Brookfield,Mass.01535. Mr. Cooke

welcomesletters, newsand commentsfor this columnwhichshould besent to himat theaboveaddress

Aspheric Lens Elements and Spline Functions

Robert E. Parks
Recently Frank Cooke, Inc., was asked to make three Fig. 1. Spline surface showing the tool path required to generate
aspheric lens elements, the aspheric surfaces being described by this curve. r) ,,,,,l I
spline functions. Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the
spline surface, the largest of which had a total sag of 5.0 cm
and a departure from the nearest sphere of roughly 1.2 cm.
We used a numerical tape controlled generator to produce
these surfaces. The basic generator was a Bridgeport milling
machine equipped with a two-axis Slo-Syn Servo drive with 2.5-
,um resolution (see Fig. 2). A paper tape was made up from a
customer-supplied sag table. The sag table listed the required
tool offset in increments of 0.25-mm radial distance. As may
be seen in Fig. 1, the diamond wheel of the generator must fol-
low a path different from that of the required lens surface. The
tape control unit drove the milling machine table to follow this
offset path.

Fig. 2. Numerical control Slo-Syn asr)heric generator built

from a Bridgeport milling machine. Digital two-axis posi-
tion readout is shown at center; the control unit is on the
right. o

Figure 2 shows the slowly rotating work spindle attached to
the Bridgeport table. This spindle caused the glass to revolve
about a horizontal axis. A variable high speed spindle was
mounted in a vertical position to the Bridgeport head. The ap-
propriate diameter diamond wheels were driven by this spindle.
To begin the generating process, the raw glass blanks were
generated flat on the back and cylindrically edged to provide
reference surfaces. The other side was generated spherical to
the appropriate tangent sphere on a Blanchard curve generator.
Figure 3 shows the concave sphere sunk in the blank that be-
came the female spline surface.
After this initial generating for fast stock removal, the glass
was held to the numerical control generator spindle by vacuum.
An 80-grit, 2.5-cm diam wheel was then used to reduce the
1.2-cm departure of the male spline surface with respect to the
tangent sphere to about 0.25 mm, as shown in Fig. 4. The
paper tape that controls this operation consisted of ten com-
mands to machine the nearest straight line sections of the de-
sired curve. The zones left by this operation are clearly visible
in Fig. 4.
The coarse grit wheel was replaced first by a 100-grit and
then a 180-grit wheel dressed to exactly 2.54-cm diam.

November 1973 / Vol. 12, No. 11 / APPLIED OPTICS 2541

Fig. 3. A Blanchard curve generator is used for fast stock
removal prior to numerical control aspheric generation.

Fig. 4. Initial numerical control roughing cut used to bring the

glass to the approximate aspheric shape.

The Bridgeport table was driven by a tape of nearly 400 comn-

mands to produce the final male surface shown in Fig. 5. The
surface was free of visible zones and had only light wheel
marks. The shiny appearance of the surface was produc :ed by U
a spray lacquer used to obtain a better photograph of the other-
wise mat ground glass surface.
I
The vertex radius of the female spline surface was suffi -iently
short to preclude mounting a diamond wheel directly to the
spindle. Instead, the yoke arrangement shown in Fig. 3 was Fig. 5. Final
used. A 6.3-cm diam diamond wheel was mounte(J be- male spline sur-
tween two pulleys on a small shaft. The shaft was bor ne by face produced
sealed ball bearings capped in the yoke. The yoke wag s fas- by 400 point-
tened to the spindle. A large pulley mounted in place of a
wheel on the spindle drove the auxiliary wheel via two eridless
to-point straight
line numerical
-
woven belts that had been treated to resist the effects control corn-
grinding coolant. mands.

2542 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 12, No. 11 / November 1973

Fig. 6. Belt drive and yoke arrangement required to put a
small diameter diamond wheel into the female spline sur-
face.

Fig. 7. The final curve is checked on a

measuring engine. The dark band on the
glass is pencil lead to provide an electri-
cally conductive contact for the measuring
probe.

To verify the correctness of the spline surfaces as produced

by the numerical control generator, the surfaces were measured
on our 75-cm capacity measuring engine, as shown in Fig. 7.
An electrical contact detecting device was used to avoid the
error producing effects of a sideways pressure on the measur-
ing probe due to the steep slope of the spline curve. A band of
pencil lead was rubbed on the ground surface to provide an
electrically conductive path on the glass. This provided a sen-
sitivity of contact of better than 1 m even at the maximum
slope angle of some 480. On polished surfaces, gold leaf may
be used in place of the graphite conductor.
Figure 8 shows all three surfaces after the completion of the
generating and measuring. The diametrical lines drawn on the
pieces give a feel for the true slope of these surfaces. The
overall accuracy of the numerically controlled generator was 8
Am as determined on the measuring engine. Generally a
smooth curve represented the error due to the effective cutting
diameter of the wheel being larger than its physical diameter.
This larger cutting diameter is caused by wheel runout and vi-
bration. Zonal errors were found to be 3 gmor less.

Fig. 8. Three different spline function aspheric surfaces

are shown, generated to an overall accuracy of 8 Aim.
The diametrical lines on the surfaces give a feel for the
true shape of the curve.

.. November 1973 / Vol. 12, No. 11 / APPLIED OPTICS 2543