Essilor International (compagnie Generale D'optique)

Other

Essilor International (compagnie General D'optique)

Dac International Inc.

Dac Vision, Inc.

John R Keller

Steven L Reid

Laurent Marcepoil

Eric Comte

Maggy Perrier

Joseph K Bond

James W Drain

Joseph Kim Bond

S Keith Swanson

Richard L Cooksey

A polishing machine for optical elements, comprising:&#x2014;a spindle arranged to rotationally drive an optical element;&#x2014;a polishing tool mobile relative to the spindle; wherein the polishing machine further comprises a platform mounted on top of a work chamber, the work chamber comprising the spindle, and the platform holding a body on which is mounted the polishing tool.

Polishing machine comprising a work chamber and a platform

A polishing machine for optical elements includes: &#x2014;a spindle arranged to rotationally drive an optical element; &#x2014;a polishing tool mobile relative to the spindle; &#x2014;a front face provided with a door enabling the access to the spindle and to the polishing tool. The polishing tool is mounted on a body which is rotationally mounted on sliding members by way of a first axis, the sliding members being substantially perpendicular to the front face.

Polishing machine comprising sliding means transverse to the front face

A polishing machine for optical elements, comprising:

A system and method for reducing reaction forces induced in a machine frame by an oscillating tool employs a counterforce assembly which is driven to move along linear slides mounted to the machine frame. The counterforce assembly is driven with a drive signal derived from two signals: a first signal which is proportional to the acceleration of the tool, and a second signal which is directly proportional to the velocity of the oscillating tool. By properly-adjusting the acceleration and velocity components of the drive signal, the magnitude of the reaction forces induced in the machine frame by the oscillating tool can be substantially reduced. The counterforce assembly preferably includes a centering means which prevents it from moving to either end of the slide. An accelerometer is preferably mounted to the machine frame to sense its vibration, with the accelerometer output used to adjust the counterforce assembly's drive electronics to reduce vibration to a minimum.

System and method for reducing oscillating tool-induced reaction forces

In a fast tool servo, a single-point flexure mechanism amplifies a low force, large stroke range actuator's force while reducing its stroke range to reduce the arcuate motion of the cutting tool. The flexure mechanism bends around a pivot point in the X-Z plane and is very stiff along the Y-axis. The actuator applies force to the unpinned end of a lever arm causing it to move back-and-forth through a large stroke range. In response, the shorter tool arm rocks around the pivot point causing the tool to oscillate back-and-forth along the Z-axis through a very shallow arc thereby superimposing the toric deviation on the base curve while maintaining surface quality.

Single-point flexure toric contact lens forming machine and method

A fining and polishing machine and method enable a work piece, suitably a spectacle lens, to be polished with a relative motion between the lens and a tool that is precisely matched to the specific lens prescription. The lens and tool are reciprocated along first and second non-co-linear axes, respectively, and the lens is polished as each reciprocates. The relative motion between lens and tool is equal to the vector sum of their individual motions. By precisely controlling the reciprocation of lens and tool, a wide range of desired motions can be obtained, enabling a lens to be polished to a particular prescription by altering the frequency and/or amplitude of the reciprocating motions along the two axes. A controller drives a pair of actuators which reciprocate the lens and tool in accordance with resident motion equations, as realized with prescription-specific amplitude and frequency parameters received as inputs.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Barbara, CA, United States of America

John R Keller