Freeform optics are becoming more prevalent in the optics industry as designers recognize their ability to expand system capability while also reducing the number of optics required and its package size. While there are increased system capability benefits, freeform optics are more challenging to manufacture. The same machine can often be used for manufacturing rotationally symmetric and freeform optics, but new software is required for the complex freeform geometries. The computer aided manufacturing (CAM) software used by the metal working industry has similar flexibility, but often lacks the critical features needed to achieve the required tolerances for optics, including metrology driven figure corrections. To address the challenges and requirements for manufacturing freeform optics, OptiPro has developed PROSurf, a CAM package developed specifically for manufacturing freeform optics. With flexibility in mind, PROSurf was designed to support the custom tooling used in optics manufacturing, a wide range of input surface definition types, and many of the industry standard file types for error maps. The software can generate tool paths for both grinding and polishing and adjust those paths based on surface measurements to improve the form error of the surface, converging towards the desired surface tolerance. This paper will highlight PROSurf’s capabilities for manufacturing freeform optics.
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