CAREER: Economically Feasible Net Shape Manufacturing of Macro and Micro Glass Optics

该学院早期职业发展（Career）基金为首席研究员提供资金，通过整合精密模具制造、传热和玻璃材料流变建模，寻求对玻璃成型过程的基本理解。实验将使用实验室规模的玻璃模压设备和商用玻璃模压机来研究玻璃模压过程，并验证玻璃模压过程的数值模拟，以确定最佳的光学设计、模压温度、模压速度和退火速率。建议的研究将与主要研究人员在制造课程教学中的学术活动相结合。研究活动将是令人兴奋的，研究生和本科生都可以访问，从而通过演示和演讲提供引人注目的课堂体验。如果成功，本研究的结果将导致玻璃成型工艺设计的改进。本研究的主要目标是确定最佳的玻璃成型参数，以满足宏观和微观光学元件的预先定义的设计标准，从而产生低成本和高质量的产品。所提出的工艺是一种净形、大批量制造方法，因此它允许光学设计师设计以前不可用的紧凑光学系统。此外，由于消除了研磨液和抛光化合物的使用，玻璃成型是一种环保意识和操作友好的过程。拟议研究的结果可以集成到光学设计、制造和组装技术中，从而为美国公司提供竞争优势，也可以导致从电信到生物医学应用等一系列领域的创新。俄亥俄州立大学与国际领先机构在超精密制造研究和教育方面的合作将对我国精密工程的长期发展产生深远的影响。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant provides funding for the principal investigator to seek fundamental understanding of the glass molding process by integrating precision mold making, heat transfer and rheological modeling of glass materials. Experiments using a lab-scale glass molding apparatus and a commercial glass molding machine will be conducted to study the glass molding process and also to validate the numerical modeling of the glass molding process to determine the optimal optical design, molding temperature, molding speed and annealing rate. The proposed research will be integrated with the principal investigators academic activities in teaching manufacturing courses. The research activities will be exciting and accessible to graduate and undergraduate students, thereby providing a compelling classroom experience through demonstrations and presentations.If successful, the results of this research will lead to improvement in design of the glass molding process. The primary goal of this research is to determine optimal glass molding parameters that will satisfy pre-defined design criteria for both macro and micro optical elements thus resulting in lower cost and high quality products. The proposed process is a net shape, high volume manufacturing method therefore it allows optical designers to design compact optical systems that were not available before. Moreover, because the use of grinding fluids and polishing compounds is eliminated, glass molding is an environmentally conscious and operator friendly process. The results from the proposed research can be integrated in optical design, fabrication and assembly technology therefore providing US companies a competitive edge and can also lead to innovations in a range of areas from telecom to biomedical applications. The cooperation between Ohio State and leading international institutions in ultraprecision manufacturing research and education will have a profound influence on the long term progress in precision engineering for our nation.