Precision glass compression molding is an attractive approach to manufacture small precision optics in large volume over traditional manufacturing techniques because of its advantages such as lower cost, faster time to market and being environment friendly. In order to study the relationship between the surface figures of molded lenses and molding process parameters such as temperature, pressure, heating rate, cooling rate and so on, we present some glass compression molding experiments using same low Tg (transition temperature) glass material to produce two different kinds of aspheric lenses by different molding process parameters. Based on results from the experiments, we know the major factors influencing surface figure of molded lenses and the changing range of these parameters. From the knowledge we could easily catch proper molding parameters which are suitable for aspheric lenses with diameter from 10mm to 30mm.

Date Published: 6 October 2010
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 7655, 5th International Symposium on Advanced Optical Manufacturing and Testing Technologies: Advanced Optical Manufacturing Technologies, 76553I (6 October 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.867485

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7655:
5th International Symposium on Advanced Optical Manufacturing and Testing Technologies: Advanced Optical Manufacturing Technologies
Li Yang; Yoshiharu Namba; David D. Walker; Shengyi Li, Editor(s)