Development of a Lapping Film Utilizing Agglomerative Fine Abrasives for Finishing of Optical Glass

In the finishing process of optical glass, polishing with ceria, silica or zirconia slurry is conventionally adopted. The machining process, however, has problems involving inefficiency and a detrimental impact on the environment. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the process be replaced with fixed-abrasive machining, but conventional fixed-abrasive tools have problems relating to low finishing efficiency or low finished-surface quality. In this study, a lapping film utilizing agglomerative superfine zirconia abrasives is introduced to overcome the above-mentioned problems. The finishing experiments revealed that the surface quality obtained was as good as that obtained by polishing with ceria slurry, while the finishing efficiency was much higher.