The lens was fabricated by fluidic shaping

TL;DR

This paper introduces a rapid, low-cost liquid injection and curing method for lens fabrication, supported by a theoretical energy minimization model and validated through 3D printed prototypes with promising optical quality.

Contribution

It presents a novel fluidic shaping technique for lenses, combining theoretical prediction and 3D printing to enable fast, cost-effective, and versatile lens manufacturing.

Findings

Method achieves high surface smoothness.

Supports any size aperture lens.

Validated with optical property measurements.

Abstract

As an important optical component, lens is widely used in scientific inquiry and production. At present, lens manufacturing mainly relies on grinding, polishing and other methods. However, these methods often require expensive equipment and complex processes. This paper presents a method of injecting liquid material into the frame structure and curing it quickly. At the same time, based on the principle of energy minimization, we give a set of theory that can accurately predict the lens face shape, and give the simulation results by software. In this paper, 3D printing technology was used to produce different shapes of borders, which were used to produce free-form surface and spherical lens samples. By characterizing their surface contours and optical properties, the practicability of the method was verified. This method has the advantages of low cost, fast forming, high surface smoothness, and can theoretically prepare any size aperture lens, which has great potential for development.