Objective
Title: Realising Curved Surfaces with Optical Quality by means of Nano-Precison Grinding based on ELID Technology (Nano Grind) Objectives: Nano Grind aims at producing cheap, smooth and curved optical surfaces (in glass, ceramics or hard metal) using an innovative grinding machine tool with electrolytic in-line dressing (ELID). Nano Grind will give a significant machining cost reduction with equal specs on dimensional accuracy and surface quality. This will be realized by a faster overall production process for direct manufacturing and by offering longer standing moulds for replication. This will result in an important cost reduction for the end-user. Nano Grind will enable production of curved surfaces with average roughness value comparable to polishing. Nano Grind will enable production of curved surfaces with a very high dimensional accuracy. Combined with the previous objective this will allow high-precision optics with high shape accuracy. Description of the work: Nano Grind has an approach of four major R&D activities running in parallel and synchronized by horizontal activities. A first activity concentrates on free-formed products machined with ELID. Another activity investigates the fundamental nature of ELID for free formed surfaces and will develop process that is reliably applicable in industrial conditions. A major issue here is the investigation of a reliable ELID dressing counter-electrode. A third activity involves the design, manufacturing and building of a machine toll for free-form ELID resulting in curved surfaces with optical accuracy. Here an ultra-stiff nano-positioning system will be investigated. The fourth activity of the project is addressing the exploitation and dissemination of projects results. This part also implements a data management structure to facilitate exploitation and dissemination. These four parts can be regarded as columns of a matrix. Overlaying these columns a horizontal structure is implemented. These are rather consecutive steps that correspond to the major milestones and have to synchronize the activities in the different vertical tasks in order to have a consistent development of e.g. process requirements and machine tool performance. Expected Results and Exploitation Plans: The main project output will be an innovative machine tool that will allow a cost-efficient production of smooth optical surfaces. The project will also generate a new generation of optical products. Important deliverables are the ELID-grinding machine and demonstrator products generated on it. Important milestones to be reached are the availability of an ELID-technology for curved surfaces, the availability of a machine tool ready for experiments and the availability of demonstrator products.
Fields of science
Keywords
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
3001 HEVERLEE
Belgium