New polishing technology of free form surface by GC

Polishing is an important finishing process in die and mold manufacturing. It is very popular to do hand polishing for free form surface although it takes long time and a lot of labor. From this point of view, many trials have been conducted in order to decrease polishing process or to develop the automatic polishing technology, which keep the form accuracy generated in cutting process. Recently grinding center (GC) which has the same ability of cutting as a MC (machining center) has been developed. In this paper a new polishing technology on free form surface with GC is presented. This new polishing technology applies the same CL used in cutting process to remove only cusp height effectively keeping the form accuracy generated in cutting process.