Abstract

A recent effort was conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of the computer controlled polisher process. A computer program was written which predicts the surface figure progress for each polishing cycle. A 1.8 meter lightweighted glass mirror was polished for four cycles using the prediction program to provide an estimation of expected surface figure improvement. The polishing activity improved the mirror surface from an RMS figure error of 0.16 waves to 0.04 waves. Even though this figure improvement lagged the predicted results due to metrology uncertainty, the rapid error correction demonstrates the computer controlled polisher to be a highly valuable manufacturing tcol.

© 1980 Optical Society of America