POLISHING TOOLS, POLISHING MACHINES AND METHODS OF POLISHING A WORKPIECE

• Main Authors: FREEMAN, Richard, JAIN, Samyak, KING, Christopher William, KNIGHTON, Harry John, BEAUCAMP, Anthony, PAKENHAM-WALSH, Oliver, JASKOT, Filip Antoni
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 17.04.2024
• Subjects: DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS; GRINDING; MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; POLISHING; TOOLS FOR GRINDING, BUFFING, OR SHARPENING; TRANSPORTING

A sub-aperture polishing tool 501a has a support member 503 with a means of attachment to a sub-aperture polishing machine and at the other end of the support member is a polishing head. The polishing head has a non-flat base structure, possibly including flat surface 505' and core 511a, and an outer shell 507 which may have a polishing pad of polyurethane or poromeric cloth defining the working surface of the polishing tool. The outer shell forms a cavity 509 with the non-flat surface and is filled with a viscoelastic material which may be shear-thickening, shear-thinning, stress-stiffening or stress-softening such as non-Newtonian fluids, polymers, soaps and shampoos. The shape of the cavity, which may include spherical, ellipsoid, parabolic, toroidal, concave or convex features, may allow for non-uniform thickness of the viscoelastic material across the tool working surface. The non-flat surface may define a micro-structure surface texture to grip the viscoelastic material when the tool is rotated.