Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Sumita Optical Glass, Inc.

Noriyuki Kawata

Makoto Umetani

Kiyoshi Kuribayashi

Hideto Monji

Masaaki Sunohara

Tadao Shioyama

Tadayoshi Yonemoto

Yoshiyuki Shimizu

Shoji Nakamura

A method of producing a glass blank, comprising the steps of: supplying a desired weight of molten glass material to a bearer heated to a temperature of not more than a softening point of the glass material; performing and cancelling, at a temperature of not less than the softening point, pressing of the glass material supplied to the bearer so as to adjust a thickness of the glass material; and cooling the glass material to a temperature of not more than the softening point.

Method of producing glass blank

The invention provides a method of manufacturing extremely precise glass optical element by thermally deforming optical glass on the optical surf ace of a thermal processing jig coated with chemically stable thin film, followed by the molding of optical glass preform having free surf ace on one side and transcribed surface from the optical surface of the thermal processing jig by means of a press mold which thermally presses the optical glass preform.

Method of manufacturing glass optical element

The invention provides a method of manufacturing extremely precise glass optical element by thermally deforming optical glass on the optical surface of a thermal processing jig coated with chemically stable thin film, followed by the molding of optical glass preform having free surface on one side and transcribedsurface from the optical surface of the thermal processing jig by means of a press mold which thermally presses the optical glass preform.

An apparatus of producing an optical glass element of the present invention comprises the steps of displacing a gob of optical glass on a first heat working jig to a second heat working jig by making the gob of optical glass to adhere to the second heat working jig on the basis of the difference in wettability with high temperature glass between the first heat working jig and the second heat working jig, thermally deforming the gob of optical glass on the second heat working jig to form an optical glass preform, and forming the optical glass preform under heating and pressure by using pressing moulds to form an optical glass element.

Apparatus for producing optical glass element

A method and apparatus are provided for producing an optical glass element, including displacing a gob of optical glass on a first heat working jig to a second heat working jig by making the gob of optical glass adhere to the second heat working jig due to a difference in wettability with high temperature glass between the first heat working jig and the second heat working jig. The gob of optical glass on the second heat working jig is thermally deformed to form an optical glass preform. The optical glass preform is formed under heat and pressure by using pressure molds to form an optical glass element.

Growing community of inventors

Omiya, Japan

Noriyuki Kawata