Freeform Surfaces Research Articles

DYnet++: A Deep Learning Based Single-Shot Phase-Measuring Deflectometry for the 3-D Measurement of Complex Free-Form Surfaces

DYnet++: A Deep Learning Based Single-Shot Phase-Measuring Deflectometry for the 3-D Measurement of Complex Free-Form Surfaces

3-D Reconstruction and Measurement of Blade Profiles With Laser-Scanning Sensor via Multiview Registration Based on Dynamic Encoding of Feature-Coordinate Information

Currently, optical-based method provides a feasible means for blade reconstruction and measurement. However, as the key step, multi-view registration is still heavily reliant on the measurement system's motion stability and geometric accuracy. Moreover, the complex and high-reflective freeform surface of blades may result in both insufficient overlaps and less prominent overlap-area features between adjacent views, making accurate multi-view data alignment difficult. Thus, we propose a method to realize accurate 3-D reconstruction and measurement of blade profiles based on a scanning system with a laser-sensor and a coarse-to-fine registration strategy. Firstly, coarse alignment of the multi-view data is achieved by calibrating the system's rotational axis using the blade datum plane feature, which can provide a good initial value for the fine registration and improve the reconstruction efficiency. Then, a fine registration algorithm based on the dynamic encoding of feature-coordinate fusion information is proposed to refine the coarsely aligned data and reduce the effect of system motion error on registration accuracy. Here, the introduction of fusion information can effectively eliminate the redundant correspondences to continuously optimize the matching probability between multi-view data in each iteration, improving registration accuracy and efficiency. Finally, experiments on typical blades and comparison with the other fine registration algorithms demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method.

A Review of Emerging Technologies in Ultra-Smooth Surface Processing for Optical Components.

Advancements in astronomical telescopes and cutting-edge technologies, including deep ultraviolet (DUV) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, have escalated demands and imposed stringent surface quality requirements on optical system components. Achieving near-ideal optical components requires ultra-smooth surfaces with sub-nanometer roughness, no sub-surface damage, minimal surface defects, low residual stresses, and intact lattice integrity. This necessity has driven the rapid development and diversification of ultra-smooth surface fabrication technologies. This paper summarizes recent advances in ultra-smooth surface processing technologies, categorized by their material removal mechanisms. A subsequent comparative analysis evaluates the roughness and polishing characteristics of ultra-smooth surfaces processed on various materials, including fused silica, monocrystalline silicon, silicon carbide, and sapphire. To maximize each process's advantages and achieve higher-quality surfaces, the paper discusses tailored processing methods and iterations for different materials. Finally, the paper anticipates future development trends in response to current challenges in ultra-smooth surface processing technology, providing a systematic reference for the study of the production of large-sized freeform surfaces.

Modeling, fabrication, and metrology of 3D printed Alvarez lenses prototypes.

In this work, we present the fabrication of two 3D printed plano-freeform prototypes, designed in such a way that, when assembled, an Alvarez lens is formed. The freeform surface of each element was mathematically described using Zernike polynomials and verified by implementing an off-axis null-screen test. Additionally, a characterization by refraction of the assembled lens was performed. Experimental images show the suitability of additive manufacturing engineering for prototyping freeform optics by providing a practical demonstration of the Alvarez lens concept.

High-precision analysis of aberration contribution of Zernike freeform surface terms for non-zero field of view.

Clarifying the aberrations arising from freeform surfaces is of great significance for maximizing the potential of freeform surfaces in the design of optical systems. However, the current precision in calculating aberration contribution of freeform surface terms for non-zero field of view is insufficient, impeding the development of freeform imaging systems with larger field of view. This paper proposes a high-precision analysis of aberration contribution of freeform surface terms based on nodal aberration theory, particularly for non-zero field points. Accurate calculation formulas of aberrations generated by Zernike terms on freeform surface are presented. Design examples illustrate that the calculation error of the provided formulas is 78% less than that of conventional theoretical values. Building upon high-precision analysis, we propose an optimization method for off-axis freeform surface systems and illustrate its effectiveness through the optimization of an off-axis three-mirror system. This research extends the applicability of nodal aberration theory in aberration analysis, offering valuable insights for the optimal design and alignment of optical freeform systems.

Fast, intelligent and high-precision adaptive null interferometry for optical freeform surfaces by backpropagation.

In the past 10 years, adaptive wavefront interferometry (AWI) has been employed for measuring freeform surface profiles. However, existing AWI techniques relying on stepwise and model-free stochastic optimizations have resulted in inefficient tests. To address these issues, deterministic adaptive wavefront interferometry (DAWI) is firstly introduced in this paper based on backpropagation (BP), which employs a loss function to simultaneously reconstruct and sparsify initial incomplete interferometric fringes until they are nulled. Each iteration of BP requires two phase shifts. Through simulations, we have verified that freeform wavefront error with a peak-to-valley (PV) of up to 168 λ can be fully compensated in tens of iterations using a 1024 × 1024 pixel area of a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator. In experiments, we accomplished a null test of a freeform surface with 80% missing interference fringes in 39 iterations, resulting in a surface profile error PV of 66.22 λ and measurement error better than λ/4. The DAWI has at least 20 times fewer iterations in fringe reconstruction than the 3-step AWI methods, and nearly an order of magnitude fewer iterations in the whole process, paving the way for significantly enhanced efficiency, generality and precision in freeform surface adaptive interferometry.

Bending and Stretching‐Insensitive, Crosstalk‐Free, Flexible Pressure Sensor Arrays for Human‐Machine Interactions

AbstractAccurate data acquisition from flexible sensors placed on deformable 3D freeform surfaces is of critical importance for many applications, such as wearable electronics, human‐machine interfaces, and soft robotics. However, the mechanical coupling between the sensor and the deformable subject surface to bending and stretching deformations can significantly reduce the accuracy of the acquired data. This study combines a polyimide (PI) micropore isolation layer (PIL) and serpentine electrodes with a flexible piezoresistive sensor to mitigate the issue of mechanical coupling. As a mechanical buffer to distribute the external pressure and reduce the strain concentration, the PIL can avoid the bending interference for bending curvature up to 256 m−1, while maintaining a high sensitivity of S > 21.5 kPa−1. The serpentine electrode design further allows the sensor to reliably acquire data in the presence of stretching up to 45% without cross‐talk. The versatility of the developed sensor is demonstrated in several human‐machine interaction scenarios, including gesture recognition and motion detection. The design strategies on materials and structures from this study can also be applied for the development of other flexible sensors with high sensitivity and low deformation interference to avoid the mechanical coupling between the sensor and the deformable surface.

Active Compliance Smart Control Strategy of Hybrid Mechanism for Bonnet Polishing.

Compliance control strategies have been utilised for the ultraprecision polishing process for many years. Most researchers execute active compliance control strategies by employing impedance control law on a robot development platform. However, these methods are limited by the load capacity, positioning accuracy, and repeatability of polishing mechanisms. Moreover, a sophisticated actuator mounted at the end of the end-effector of robots is difficult to maintain in the polishing scenario. In contrast, a hybrid mechanism for polishing that possesses the advantages of serial and parallel mechanisms can mitigate the above problems, especially when an active compliance control strategy is employed. In this research, a high-frequency-impedance robust force control strategy is proposed. It outputs a position adjustment value directly according to a contact pressure adjustment value. An open architecture control system with customised software is developed to respond to external interrupts during the polishing procedure, implementing the active compliance control strategy on a hybrid mechanism. Through this method, the hybrid mechanism can adapt to the external environment with a given contact pressure automatically instead of relying on estimating the environment stiffness. Experimental results show that the proposed strategy adapts the unknown freeform surface without overshooting and improves the surface quality. The average surface roughness value decreases from 0.057 um to 0.027 um.

Force servo nano-precision diamond cutting of freeform surfaces on a micro-precision machine

This paper presents force servo single point diamond cutting of freeform surfaces with nano-precision on a micro-precision machine. For nanometric machining accuracy, traditional diamond cutting based on position servo, requires accurate machine axial motions by ultra-precision machine with high cost, or utilizes a fast tool servo to compensate for machine slide vibration and motion error of common machines that is a complicated procedure. In this paper, nanometric machining accuracy was achieved on a micro-precision machine by force servo diamond cutting, in which the tool can be driven to trace the workpiece surface to compensate for the machine slide vibration, machine motion errors and workpiece incline errors accurately and automatically. For highly sensitive and stable force controlling, force servo nanocutting mechanism (FSNM) based on flexible structures was designed with force sensing resolution down to submillinewton level, and a damping controller was developed to suppress the resonant vibration of the FSNM. For extending application of force servo cutting from fabrication of only discontinuous microstructures to continuous freeform surfaces, referring force maps were developed by considering the real material removal volume of each cutting point. Force servo cutting was then validated by fabricating freeform surfaces with surface form errors of less than 10 nm on silicon spherical surfaces based on the micro-precision machine. The works discussed in this paper provide an effective technique for the fabrication of complex and continuous microstructured and freeform surfaces with nano-precision by common machines only with micron even tens of microns precision.

Measurement of a Freeform Surface by Dragging Three Point Method Along with a Circular Path

Freeform surfaces can realize optical systems with a wide field of view, high throughput, and high contrast. For constructing optical systems with freeform surfaces, measuring technology is essential. However, it is difficult to measure freeform surfaces by existing measurement methods. We have developed a new measurement method of the dragging three-point method (DTPM). To realize further improvement in the accuracy of the DTPM, we propose the DTPM with a circular path. Since the circular path is closed, the measurement error can be reduced by the boundary condition that the height and slope agree with at the start and end points of the measurement. To evaluate this method, we conducted the circular path measurement of an off-axis asphere. The measurement repeatability was RMS = 1.5 nm, and the result agreed well with that of an interferometric test; the difference was RMS = 17.2 nm.

Fundamental Study of Press Molding Method for CFRP Preform Using a 3D Printer

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) is a composite material with high specific strength and is applied to transportation and aviation equipment. However, conventional processing methods require large-scale production apparatus or a high level of dexterity that only comes with extensive experience which makes it difficult to achieve high processing efficiency. The objective of this study is to develop a novel method for forming thermos-plastic CFRP (CFRTP) preforms implementing a 3D printer for press molding. Applying this method offers the advantage that continuous carbon fibers can be formed on a free-form surface. It also reduces the manufacturing time and operator skill required. The goal of this research is to establish a method for molding a free-form surface composed of continuous fibers by employing a 3D-printed preform designed to match the unfolded polygonised diagram of the free-form surface. Previous research introduced an unfolding approach for converting a three-dimensional shape to a plane surface based on a computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) system, enabling the generation of an unfolding diagram that maintains the continuity of fiber tow. Furthermore, the validity of unfolded diagram was confirmed by reproducing the objective three-dimensional shape from the unfolded diagram using thermos-setting CPRP (CFRTS) tow prepreg. In this study, the viability of the proposed molding process using CFRTP preform fabricated by a 3D printer was verified and an assessment of the formability of the molded parts was conducted.

Design of a Spaceborne, Compact, Off-Axis, Multi-Mirror Optical System Based on Freeform Surfaces

Based on the application requirements of high spectral resolutions, high spatial resolutions and wide swatches, a new-generation, high-performance, spaceborne, hyperspectral imaging spectrometer (NGHSI) with a spatial resolution of 15 m and a swatch of 90 km is proposed. The optical system of the NGHSI has a focal length of 1128 mm, an F-number of three, a field of view (FOV) of 7.32° and a slit length of 144 mm. A new off-axis, multi-mirror telescope structure with intermediate images is put forward, which solves the design problem that realizes secondary imaging and good telecentricity at the same time. And a new off-axis lens-compensation Offner configuration is adopted to address the challenge of the high-fidelity design of spectral imaging systems with long slit lengths. The relationship between X-Y polynomials and aberration coefficients is analyzed, and the X-Y polynomial freeform surfaces are used to correct the off-axis aberrations. The design results show that the image quality of the telescope system is close to the diffraction limit. The smile, known as the spectral distortion along the line, and keystone, which is the magnification difference for different wavelengths, of the spectral imaging system are less than 1/10 pixel size. The complete optical system of the NGHSI, including the telescope system and the spectral imaging system, has excellent imaging quality and the layout is compact and reasonable, which realizes the miniaturization design.

10× continuous optical zoom imaging using Alvarez lenses actuated by dielectric elastomers.

Optical zoom is an essential function for many imaging systems including consumer electronics, biomedical microscopes, telescopes, and projectors. However, most optical zoom imaging systems have discrete zoom rates or narrow zoom ranges. In this work, a continuous optical zoom imaging system with a wide zoom range is proposed. It consists of a solid lens, two Alvarez lenses, and a camera with an objective. Each Alvarez lens is composed of two cubic phase plates, which have inverted freeform surfaces concerning each other. The movement of the cubic phase masks perpendicular to the optical axis is realized by the actuation of the dielectric elastomer. By applying actuation voltages to the dielectric elastomer, cubic phase masks are moved laterally and then the focal lengths of the two Alvarez lenses are changed. By adjusting the focal lengths of these two Alvarez lenses, the optical magnification is tuned. The proposed continuous optical zoom imaging system is built and the validity is verified by the experiments. The experimental results demonstrate that the zoom ratio is up to 10×, i.e., the magnification continuously changes from 1.58× to 15.80× when the lateral displacements of the cubic phase masks are about 1.0 mm. The rise and fall response times are 150 ms and 210 ms, respectively. The imaging resolution can reach 114 lp/mm during the optical zoom process. The proposed continuous optical imaging system is expected to be used in the fields of microscopy, biomedicine, virtual reality, etc.

Prediction of machining errors for free-form surfaces based on an improved grey model (1,N)

An improved grey model (GM) for predicting free-form surface machining errors was established to address the low measuring efficiencies of coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and the low prediction accuracy of the GM(1,1) model. A number of points on a free-form surface are measured with a CMM, and machining errors are obtained. Ideas from metabolic methods and the GM(1,N) prediction model were combined. To reduce the impact of random fluctuations of the machining errors, a Markov prediction model was then used to correct the fitted results for the residuals and obtain the predicted results of the machining errors for free-form surfaces, thus improving the prediction accuracy of the model. The predicted results of the metabolic GM(1,1) and metabolic GM(1,N) models were then compared. The experimental results showed that the combination of metabolic theory, a grey model, and Markov theory effectively improved the prediction accuracy.

Review of surface roughness and material removing rate on abrasive flow machining process

Every day, advancements in manufacturing technology research and innovation yield a highly finished surface with lower labour and machining costs. The conventional materials that were frequently employed in the chemical, automotive, and aerospace industries have been replaced by materials like ceramics, metal matrix composites, polymers, and super alloys. The AFM technology is capable of maintaining precision, reliability, and adaptability across adverse range of applications. Internal parts, through holes, intersecting holes, and freeform surfaces that are challenging to finish with other conventional finishing techniques can all be polished and deburred with AFM. The current study aims to determine the process variables that have a major impact on the change in surface roughness of the inner, outer, and side surfaces as well as the amount of material removal. These parameters include abrasive mesh size, abrasive concentration in media, and the number of passes. A review of published technical articles on the AFM process is attempted in this article, and the studies are divided into four categories: experimental setups, abrasive media, modelling and optimisation, and applications of the AFM process. The review article provides fresh directions for future investigation. Page layout

Influence of the width of cut in ultrasonic vibration superimposed face milling of X46Cr13 and X40CrMoV5-1 on the surface microstructure and CVD diamond coating adhesion

Ultrasonic vibration superimposed milling (UVSM) with an oscillating movement of the specimen in the direction of the tool axis is an efficient method for the generation of microstructured functional surfaces. The application of end milling cutters with a diameter smaller than the length and the width of the surface to be structured generally results in recuts and path overlaps. In order to avoid surface recutting, a small lead angle was realized by slightly tilting the ultrasonic system with the specimen. The overlapping area of two adjacent paths was kinematically simulated for different widths of cut (from 70% to 90% of the tool diameter). Cutting experiments were carried out by UVSM of X46Cr13 and X40CrMoV5-1 steel specimens to investigate the influence of the width of cut on the surface generated in the overlapping area and also the adherence of a subsequently deposited CVD diamond layer. For this purpose, 3-D laser scanning microscopy and SEM analysis were applied. The knowledge gained allows for designing UVSM processes, especially regarding 3-D freeform surfaces with defined microstructures subjected to CVD diamond coating.

Milling or grinding for manufacturing of an Alloy 718 gas turbine component? – A comparison of surface integrity and productivity

Milling is traditionally the most used machining method when manufacturing complex gas turbine components. In particular those made from nickel-based superalloys. However, for larger free form surfaces, grinding may be an efficient alternative that could be used throughout the complete manufacturing route, from roughing to finishing. Hence, in this work the two processing methods has been compared in regard to surface integrity and productivity.Machining tests have been performed on case plates of heat-treated Alloy 718 using best practise setting for roughing and finishing with grinding and milling. The surface integrity of the work pieces was evaluated regarding surface topography, residual stresses, and deformation. This comparison showed that the main advantage with grinding is the ability to switch between roughing and finishing by just altering the depth of cut. Further, grinding offers lower surface roughness, compressive residual stresses, and significantly lower degree of deformation.From a productivity perspective, deep grinding may offer high material removal rates and ability to machine several work pieces in the same setup. However, grinding is limited to simpler free form geometries and may result in minor surface damages and abrasive surface residue. For selection of machining strategy, advantages and drawbacks shown in this work need to be considered for the application at hand in respect to productivity, surface integrity and requirements on fatigue life.

Proposal of an evaluation method of variation in tool center points for ball-end milling of free-form surfaces

Proposal of an evaluation method of variation in tool center points for ball-end milling of free-form surfaces

New polishing concepts for optical components in flexible and efficient process chains

The flexible and efficient production of precise optical free-form surfaces requires advanced kinematic operating principles. Due to the complex surface geometries, polishing processes with point or linear contact are used. These generally result in longer polishing times due to the smaller footprint compared to large-area polishing tools. The creation of a high precision, polishable surface in the shaping steps of the process chain is therefore of great importance. This applies in particular to minimising the roughness, but also the depth of SSD (sub-surface damage) and the mid-spatial frequency errors before the polishing process. The article describes selected process chains for the production of free-form optics and presents options for optimising the required polishing steps.

Large field optical imaging system based on freeform surface optics

Large field optical imaging system based on freeform surface optics