Abstract
It is necessary to develop the grinding and the polishing tools for finishing the free-form metal surface of a mold cavity automatically. In our previous paper, the dual-axis micro-grinding tool which can finish a cavity surface to a smooth surface of less than 2.5μmRmax has been reported. In this paper, a dual-axis polishing tool with a spherical elastic body which can finish the ground cavity surface to a mirror surface of less than 0.3μm Rmax was developed. This tool has the following properties: (1) The revolution ratio m of the polishing spindle to the main spindle influences both the cross loci and the cross angle of abrasive grains. (2) This tool which has a low polishing speed and reversal polishing motion like a hand work can automatically polish a mold cavity surface to a mirror surface of less than 0.3μm Rmax in every range of 0-90° inclination angle.
