Fundamental performance of Magnetic Compound Fluid (MCF) wheel in ultra-fine surface finishing of optical glass

• Magnetic Compound Fluid (MCF) wheel is a new semi-fixed abrasive polishing tool.
• The mechanism of material removal in the polishing using MCF wheel is discussed.
• The work surface and force are related to the clearance and the rotation speed.
• The abrasive particles within the MCF slurry are distributed differently.
• A larger material removal rate is obtained at the both magnet edges.

This study investigates a new semi-fixed-abrasive, ultra-fine finishing method for optical glass using a magneticcompound fluid (MCF) wheel. This MCF wheel generates a thin, uniform MCF slurry layer on the entire circumferentialsurface of a ring-shaped permanent magnet placed between two non-magnetic plates. The MCF slurry is composed ofnano-sized magnetite particles, micron-sized iron particles, several 10 μm-sized α-cellulose fibres and sub-micron-sizedabrasive particles that react to the magnetic field. Following modifications to the design of the MCF, experiments wereconducted to evaluate the performance of the modified wheel in spot-polishing fused silica glass. This paper describes themodifications to the MCF wheel and the experimental setup used to measure its performance. The improvement of themodified wheel over the unmodified wheel in terms of material removal and surfaces roughness is experimentallyconfirmed. The effects of the wheel rotational speed and the clearance between the wheel and the workpiece on materialremoval and the workpiece surface roughness are investigated. The polishing forces are measured, the structure of the MCFslurry is examined and the magnetic field distribution is analysed. A model of material removal in polishing with themodified MCF wheel is developed. The results indicate the following: (1) more material was removed, i.e., greater spotdepths, and better surfaces were obtained in the regions that were near the edges of the magnet; (2) the modified MCF wheelperformed much better than the unmodified wheel in terms of material removal and surface roughness, e.g., 3.1 μm vs. 1.7μm for the maximum spot depth, 0.04 mm3 vs. 0.0088 mm3 for the volume of material removed and Ra = 5.624 nm vs.14.67 nm for the surface roughness; (3) a better work surface and greater material removal were obtained with smallerworking clearances and higher wheel rotational speeds.