A novel multi-jet polishing process and tool for high-efficiency polishing

Traditional fluid jet polishing (FJP) is limited by its low material removal rate and its applicability to medium-large size surfaces. This paper presents a novel multi-jet polishing (MJP) process and tools based on FJP which can implement high-efficiency polishing on large-scale surfaces or lens array surfaces. The MJP makes use of a purposely designed nozzle which possesses many regularly distributed holes, whose number can be a few to several hundred. Moreover, each hole can spray out a high-energy fluid jet leading to a dramatic increase of material removal. Its feasibility is firstly analyzed through a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation. Hence, its surface generation mechanisms in the integrated polishing mode and discrete polishing mode are studied. After that, a series of polishing experiments on different materials are conducted to validate its polishing performance as compared to single jet polishing (SJP). The experimental results show that the MJP tool can realize a much higher material removal rate, together with compatible surface roughness to SJP. Hence, the MJP tool has the potential to implement high-efficiency polishing on medium-large size surfaces and lens array surfaces. [Display omitted]