Superabrasives specialist Engis has developed a new process for polishing laser-grade quality optical surfaces. The process enables materials including zinc selenide, zinc sulphide, germanium, silicon, calcium fluoride and magnesium fluoride, to be polished using exactly the same diamond slurry and composite plate combination.
This process enables manufacturers to change quickly between processing different materials. The combination of Engis diamond slurry and composite polishing plate technology eliminates edge rounding normally associated with pad polishing.
Polishing results using this process with the Engis FastLap machine, engineered Hyprez diamond slurries and Engis high-precision composite plates were found to result in fewer visual sleeks, while achieving surface flatness to λ/8 using plate facing technology, according to Engis.