MOLDING APPARATUS AND MOLDING METHOD FOR OPTICAL ELEMENT

• Main Authors: YOSHIKUNI KEISUKE, OIKAWA SEIJI, MIZOTA NORITOSHI, IKEDA KUNINOBU
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 19.04.2012
• Subjects: AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING; CHEMISTRY; CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION ORPROCESSING OF GOODS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GLASS; MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES; METALLURGY; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE; TRANSPORTING; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively suppress the thermal deformation of a molding apparatus, and to provide a molding apparatus for an optical element with which high precision optical elements are manufactured with a good yield by suppressing the thermal deformation.SOLUTION: In the molding apparatus 1 for an optical element, a molding tool 80 in which an optical material is put between upper and lower dies is sequentially conveyed to heating, press molding and cooling stages 3, 4 and 5 arranged in a chamber 2 to mold an optical element. The molding apparatus comprises two or more sets of plates 3b, 4b and 5b each of which consists of a pair of upper and lower plates and which hold the molding tool 80 in the heating, press molding and cooling stages and subject the held molding tool 80 to heating, press molding and cooling processes, respectively, and a control means to control the heating, press molding and cooling processes, wherein the upper press plate 4b is connected to a shaft 4d for vertically moving the plate through a horizontal moving means 4e to horizontally move the press plate 4b according to horizontal force produced during movement of the shaft 4d.