A new type Stressed Mirror Polishing method using annular polishing machine is developed in NIAOT. It provides good efficiency for the massive production of off-axis segments for the extremely large telescope because 3 or more pieces of segment can be polished simultaneously on a AP machine. With an annular polishing machine with 3.6m diameter, two scale-down TMT segments have been polished. Both 2 segments are Φ1100mm in diameter, with the vertex radius of curvature of 60m and aspheric constant K=-1.000953. The off-axis distances (OAD) are 8m and 12m respectively. After SMAP process, the acceptable surface accuracy can be reached, which is 1.12μm/0.23μm of PV/RMS value for the segment with 8m OAD, and 1.22 μm/0.26 μm for another one.

Date Published: 22 July 2016
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 9912, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation II, 99120A (22 July 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2231612

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9912:
Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation II
Ramón Navarro; James H. Burge, Editor(s)