ABTech Manufacturing creates five-axis platform for nanometer/sub-arcsec processing
around its ultra-precision air bearings and Renishaw SiGNUM™ position encoders

When a leading manufacturer of CNC optical manufacturing technology needed ultra-accurate and stable positioning for a new system for measurement of conformal optics, it turned to ABTech Manufacturing Inc, specializing in custom-made ultra-precision air bearings and motion systems. To meet tighter customer specifications for positioning resolution, it found the solution, as usual, in new high-resolution linear encoders and rotary optical encoders from Renishaw. The New Hampshire, USA, company created a five-axis optical measurement platform featuring three ABTech linear air bearings, two ABTech rotary air bearings, and Renishaw’s ultra-high accuracy SiGNUM™ series linear encoders and rotary encoders.

In operation, a lens is placed on a high-precision B-axis rotary table for measurement by a non-contact confocal imaging probe mounted horizontally on a rotary C-axis air bearing. Confocal imaging performs microtopographic mapping of the lens geometry and surface......

The system requires that the confocal probe be positioned normal (perpendicular) to each surface point to be measured. The platform created by ABTech accomplishes the exacting repositioning by coordinated motion in up to five axes. The next-generation CNC optics inspection systems require position resolution of 5 nm for the three linear axes. Resolution for rotary motion is 0.009 arcsec/count for the C-axis and 0.018 arcsec/count for the B-axis.

(Full story on www.renishaw.com)