Paper
1 January 1987 Optical Fabrication By Precision Electroform
Ronald W. George, Lawrence L. Michaud
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
The basic electroforming process exactly reproduces finely finished surface details from a master mold or mandrel. The process promises high potential for fabricating imaging quality optical components. This requires, however, the electrodeposition to be nearly stress free to attain accuracy within fractions of a wavelength (1.06 um) of light. Prior to this work, this level of accuracy had never been accomplished. This paper presents the advances made to the method and the process of electroforming in creating the routine production of imaging quality nickel metal mirrors. Work to date includes the electroforming of self-aligning two mirrored telescopes; the development of a large electroforming workstation to produce several mirrors simultaneously, and the development of a process for electroforming secondary mandrels. A generic process overview is presented along with opto-mechanical testing and results. Also included is a description of the general computer controlled closed loop process (Martin Marietta U.S. Patent #4,647,365 & #4,648,944). The work described was performed at Martin Marietta Corporation (Orlando) with the majority conducted under contract DAAHO1-85-C-1072 for the U.S. Army Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, August 1985 through August 1987
© (1987) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Ronald W. George and Lawrence L. Michaud "Optical Fabrication By Precision Electroform", Proc. SPIE 0818, Current Developments in Optical Engineering II, (1 January 1987); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.978904
Advertisement
Advertisement
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission  Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace
KEYWORDS
Mirrors

Telescopes

Metals

Optical engineering

Optical fabrication

Nickel

Optical testing

RELATED CONTENT

LSST secondary mirror assembly
Proceedings of SPIE (July 06 2018)
Bend-And-Polish Fabrication Techniques
Proceedings of SPIE (October 22 1985)
Testing the 8.3-meter telescope optics
Proceedings of SPIE (August 02 1995)
Hobby-Eberly primary mirror fabrication
Proceedings of SPIE (September 08 1995)

Back to Top