Diamond turning of optical materials: a review

Abstract

Single point diamond turning SPDT is key technology to overcome the shortcomings of conventional machining of optical components. In the last decade, researchers explored various factors of SPDT to improve the machinability of optical materials. Collection of these studies in the form of detail review is missing. In this paper, existing literature has been studied in three categories of optical materials, i.e., ductile, polymers and brittle materials keeping in view of their usage for lenses and moulds. Most of the authors have analysed the effect of three input variables namely depth of cut, spindle speed and tool feed rate on surface roughness. This paper emphasises on review of effect of all the input variables, i.e., nose radius, depth of cut, rake angle, feed rate, tool overhang, spindle speed, etc. Effects of all these process variables are reviewed not only on surface roughness but also on profile error and waviness error.