Precision grinding of optical glass with laser micro-structured coarse-grained diamond wheels

• The coarse-grained diamond grinding wheels were micro-structured by UV nanosecond pulsed laser successfully.
• Micro-structured coarse-grained diamond wheels can be applied for precision grinding of optical glass in order to improve subsurface damage.
• The surface roughness and subsurface damage depth were both reduced with the interval decreasing of micro-structures.
• In grinding of BK7, the subsurface damage depth could be reduced to 1.5 μm when using the 30 μm interval micro-structured coarse-grained diamond wheel.

This paper presents a series of micro-structured coarse-grained diamond wheels for optical glass surface grinding aiming to improve the grinding performance, especially subsurface damage. The 150 μm grit size, single layer electroplated diamond grinding wheels with different interval micro-groove arrays were manufactured by nanosecond pulsed laser, successfully. The influence of micro-structures on surface roughness and subsurface damage was investigated. Compared with conventional coarse-grained diamond wheel, the subsurface damage depth was reduced effectually from 5 to 1.5 μm, although the better surface roughness was not obtained by the micro-structured coarse-grained diamond wheel. In addition, the surface roughness and subsurface damage depth were both reduced with the decreasing interval of micro-groove arrays.