Compression behavior of polyurethane polishers in optical polishing process

In polishing process, polishers must have a number of proprieties inter alia elasticity to perform their function, which is the achievement of a minimum roughness and a correct form. During the process, the polishers are subjected to compression stress generated by the technological parameters of the process. The efficiency of the polishers and the obtained quality will be influenced when they lost their mechanical properties after some hours of use. This work aims to characterize the polisher’s compression behavior and its influence on the surface quality and the effectiveness during the optical polishing process. The subjects are to define polishers wear reasons and thus to define their lifetime, in addition to the identification of the relationship between the compression behavior and the polishing quality and efficiency. For that, polishing, compression and hysteresis tests were conducted on polyurethane polishers before and after their use and the obtained results were discussed. The found results after 2 h of polishing showed the difference of the elastic properties of the polishers without a big influence on their total wear. Consequently, a very low surface roughness was obtained, with high shape accuracy.