Removal rate of abrasive polishing of epoxy resin optical surface

Abstract

To realize carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) mirrors, the high-precision polishing of an epoxy resin surface, which is the reflection surface of such mirrors, is required. To polish the surface with high quality, it is necessary to know the polishing characteristics of epoxy resin. However, unlike acrylic resin, there are few studies in which the polishing characteristics of epoxy resin were investigated. In this study, we polished test pieces of epoxy and acrylic resins in the same single batch under various conditions, and compared their removal rates. For this purpose, a new polishing technique that enables the simultaneous polishing of different materials under the same conditions was developed. We also evaluated the surface roughnesses for both resins before and after polishing. As a result, we found that the removal rate of epoxy resin was approximately 90% lower than that of acrylic resin under the polishing conditions using alumina abrasive grains and a suede pad. The roughness of the resulting epoxy surface was 4.76 nm RMS, which satisfies one specification of optics used in a space telescope.

Keywords

• cfrp
• epoxy resin
• acrylic resin
• polishing
• surface roughness
• removal rate
• optics
• space telescopes