title: Computer controlled polisher demonstration.
abstract: A recent effort was conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of the computer controlled polisher process. A computer algorithm was written that predicts the surface figure progress for each polishing cycle. A 1.8-m diam lightweight glass mirror was polished with the computer controlled polisher for four cycles. The prediction program was used to provide an estimate of expected figure improvement for each cycle. The activity used only 72 h of polishing time and improved the mirror surface from an rms figure error of 0.16-0.04 waves, where a wave is 0.633 microm. Even though this figure improvement lagged the predicted improvement due to metrology uncertainty, the rapid error correction demonstrates the computer controlled polisher to be a highly valuable manufacturing tool.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Jones