Parameter investigation of air-driving fluid jet polishing

Abstract

Air-driving fluid jet polishing (FJP) technique was first presented in 2011. Slurry was drop out due to Venturi effect inside the atomizer which is the main component of air-driving FJP system, and was guided to mix with air flow by the nozzle. The Venturi effect and the added high speed air flow provide slurry more kinetic energy to impact the optical surface. Therefore, the air-driving FJP system has a rotational symmetrical Gaussian-like removal profile with lower air pressure and normal incidence configuration. In this paper, we investigate oblique incidence polishing to find the optimal material removal performance of the technique, including removal shape and depth and surface roughness. Different oblique angles ranged from 80 to 20 degree were tested. The air-driving FJP system was adapted upon a CNC machine, so not only single point polishing but also straight line polishing with constant feed rate can be carried out. We report on the performance of oblique air-driving FJP in different air pressure and processing time, and also the material removal of dynamic polishing for N-BK7, Fused Silica and ZERODUR®. The results indicate oblique incidence can get a Gaussian-like removal shape, and improve the surface roughness. The air-driving FJP not only has the advantages of conventional fluid jet polishing, such as no tool wears, cutter interference and debris deposition problems, but also has excellent material removal rate with lower energy.