Additive manufacturing of reflective optics: Evaluating finishing methods

Abstract

Individually shaped light distributions become more and more important in lighting technologies and thus the importance of additively manufactured reflectors increases significantly. The vast field of applications ranges from automotive lighting to medical imaging and bolsters the statement. However, the surfaces of additively manufactured reflectors suffer from insufficient optical properties even when manufactured using optimized process parameters for the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process. Therefore post-process treatments of reflectors are necessary in order to further enhance their optical quality. This work concentrates on the effectiveness of post-process procedures for reflective optics. Based on already optimized aluminum reflectors, which are manufactured with a SLM machine, the parts are differently machined after the SLM process. Selected finishing methods like laser polishing, sputtering or sand blasting are applied and their effects quantified and compared. The post-process procedures are investigated on their impact on surface roughness and reflectance as well as geometrical precision. For each finishing method a demonstrator will be created and compared to a fully milled sample and among themselves. Ultimately, guidelines are developed in order to figure out the optimal treatment of additively manufactured reflectors regarding their optical and geometrical properties. Simulations of the light distributions will be validated with the developed demonstrators.