Abstract
The optical elements made of plastics are normally produced by mass production such as injection molding with use of precision dies and molds. It costs to prepare the dies and molds, and it is only justified to prepare such expensive dies and molds when the parts are massively produced. On the other hand, it is too expensive and inefficient when precision plastic parts are needed only in small quantities, such as a case of trial manufacturing of new products. An ultra-precision diamond cutting is one of promising processes to produce the precision plastic parts in such cases. But it is commonly believed that an ultra-precision cutting of plastics for optical components is very difficult, because they are thermo-plastic material. In the present research, an ultra-precision diamond cutting of polycarbonate (PC), that is one of typical optical materials, was tried by using elliptical vibration cutting method. It is experimentally proved that good optical surfaces were obtained by using elliptical vibration cutting in cases of grooving and flat surfaces. The maximum surface roughness of less than 60 nm in peak to valley value is acquired.
