Effect of multi stage abrasive slurry jet polishing on surface generation in glass

The polishing process is used to produce a smooth surface with a required geometrical figure for the optical component. The abrasive slurry jet polishing process is one of the non-traditional polishing process, which is used to polish freeform optics with the nano-level surface finish. In the abrasive slurry jet polishing process, the saturation in surface roughness is observed with a jet exposure time or polishing time. Once the saturation limit is reached a further reduction in surface roughness without the modification of processing conditions and the size of the abrasive particles is not possible. Hence to achieve the required surface roughness a different polishing strategy has to be adapted. In this work, an attempt was carried out to yield a considerable reduction in surface roughness using a multistage polishing concept. In this concept, the impact angle, the traverse speed of the nozzle, the type and size of the abrasive particle were changed after the first stage of polishing. The surface generation has been studied by measuring the surface roughness at each stage of polishing, and the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analyses have been done to understand the changes in surface texture, after polishing. From the experiments, the large size Al2O3 particle in the first stage of polishing and then small size Al2O3 particle in the remaining stages of polishing yields a considerable reduction in surface roughness. The combination of parameters with the type and size of the abrasive particles to be used to achieve the required surface characteristics were demonstrated. Thus, the multistage polishing concept can be floated as a viable strategy to achieve a high reduction in surface roughness on the optical component.