Radical Measurement System for Lean Optics Manufacturing

精密光学支撑着数字革命和其他下一代应用，如自动驾驶汽车。然而，在自由曲面、非球面和球面光学元件的所有精密光学器件的可扩展制造中存在一个根本瓶颈，由于缺乏具有成本效益的技术来准确测量3-这些表面的三维形状，以确保整个制造过程中的一致性和误差。可见波长激光干涉仪广泛使用，但仅适用于在最后的精细抛光阶段的质量保证。用于粗磨部件的预抛光（粗磨），其中大的几何误差可能会无意中引入，较长波长的红外（IR）干涉仪利用粗糙表面的反射率提供精确的3-D轮廓，其动态范围是可见光干涉仪的20倍。然而，非常高的系统成本限制了除最大或高价值制造商之外的所有制造商的采用（例如国防），大多数仅限于一维轮廓测量，这太耗时而无效，或者被迫进行盲目抛光。相应的返工，拒绝/浪费，生产量和单件成本排除了大多数标准光学制造商参与精密光学供应链的可能性。没有现有的技术成本-有效地克服了这些障碍，或者可以在可见光和红外波长下工作。Optical Tools for Industry的目标是使用新的光学方法和相应的配置来实现突破性的混合红外-可见光干涉仪，从而从根本上降低系统成本。概念工作以及学术和工业专有技术，这个与哈德斯菲尔德大学，金属薄膜和阿姆斯特朗光学的合作项目将开发和验证这一关键技术的原型水平。刺激显着的经济和溢出效益，该项目支持中小企业供应链的多样化和风险降低，以获得满足英国战略目标的新技术（例如汽车、医疗设备、污染监测和安全/国防），以及通过在岸解决海外供应链日益增长的挑战。

Precision optics underpin the digital revolution, and other next-generation applications such as autonomous vehicles.However, a fundamental bottleneck exists in the scalable manufacture of all precision optics across freeform, aspherical and spherical optical components, due to a lack of cost-effective technology to accurately measure 3-D forms of these surfaces for conformance and errors across the whole manufacturing process.Visible wavelength laser interferometers are widely available, but are only suitable for quality assurance during the final fine-polishing stages. For pre-polishing of the component in rough-ground form (course abrasives), where large geometric errors can be unintentionally introduced, longer wavelength infrared (IR) interferometers exploit the reflectivity of rough surfaces to provide accurate 3-D profiles, with 20-times the dynamic range of visible interferometers.However, very high system costs restrict adoption by all but the largest or high-value manufacturers (e.g. defence), with most limited to 1-D profilometry, which are too time-consuming to be effective, or forced to undertake polishing blind.Corresponding re-works, rejection/wastage, throughput and piece-cost preclude participation of the majority of standard optics manufacturers from participating in the precision optics supply chain.No existing technology cost-effectively overcomes these barriers or can operate at both visible and IR wavelengths.In response, Optical Tools for Industry target a ground-breaking hybrid IR-visible interferometer using a new optical approach and corresponding configuration enabling radically reduced system costs.Building on proof-of-concept work as well as both academic and industrial knowhow, this collaborative project with University of Huddersfield, Thin Metallic Films and Armstrong Optical will develop and validate this key enabling technology to prototype-level.Stimulating significant economic and spill-over benefits, the project supports diversification and de-risking of SME supply chains for new enabling technologies addressing UK strategic targets (for example automotive, medical devices, pollution monitoring, and security/defence), as well as addressing the growing challenges of overseas supply chains through on-shoring.