Patent ID: 11969848
Assignee: ESSILOR INTERNATIONAL
Field: Machine tools (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. An optical-grade surfacing tool (10), comprising:
a base (11) comprising a rigid holder (12) and a flexible collar (13) encircling said rigid holder (12), said rigid holder (12) having a transverse end surface (14), and said collar (13) having a transverse end surface (15) that is located on a same side as the transverse end surface (14) of the rigid holder (12);
an elastically compressible interface (16) comprising a first transverse end surface (17), a second transverse end surface (18), and a lateral surface (19) extending from a periphery of the first transverse end surface (17) to a periphery of the second transverse end surface (18), the first transverse end surface (17) of the elastically compressible interface (16) being attached to the transverse end surface (14) of the rigid holder (12) and to the transverse end surface (15) of the collar (13); and
a flexible buffer (20) having a third transverse end surface (21) that is attached to the second transverse end surface (18) of the elastically compressible interface (16) and a fourth transverse end surface (22) that is configured to be applied against a surface (23) to be worked, said buffer (20) comprising a central portion (24) that is located plumb with the transverse end surface (14) of the rigid holder (12) and a peripheral portion (25) that is located transversely beyond the transverse end surface (14),
said peripheral portion (25) being joined to the holder (12) exclusively by said interface (16) and by said collar (13), and
said collar (13) being elastically deformable configured so that the tool (10) elastically deforms between a rest position in which the tool is free of any force applied for pressing the flexible buffer (22), and a reference position in which the second transverse end surface (22) of the flexible buffer (20) is pressed against a reference surface (37, 40, 46, 47) that is spherical with a radius ranging from 40 mm and 1500 mm,
wherein the collar (13) is subdivided into petals, each of the petals (27) extending from the rigid holder to a far end, and
wherein each of the petals (27) has an axial thickness that varies as a function of a distance x from the holder to the far end of the petal, and wherein the thickness for each said petal is the same at any given distance x.