Patent ID: 9457411
Filing Date: 2016-10-04
CPC Classification: B23B,B24B,Y10T

Claim Text:
1. Collet for holding a lens, comprising: a shank; at least two gripping jaws attached to an upper edge of the shank and separated from one another by radial slots, an upper edge region of the gripping jaws forming a contact surface for at least partially flexible grinding or polishing tool, the radial slots being continuous to an area adjacent to a lower edge of the shank; and a through hole formed between the upper edge of the gripping jaws and the lower edge of the shank, wherein the upper edge region of the gripping jaws is radially continuous with a region of the lens that is to be held by the collet, such that the upper region of the gripping jaws does not interfere with operation paths of the at least partially flexible grinding or polishing tool, wherein the gripping jaws includes a lens receiving section for receiving the lens, the lens receiving section having a sidewall portion that contacts a sidewall of the lens and a bottom outer edge that contacts a bottom outer edge of the lens and that is formed substantially perpendicularly to the sidewall portion, wherein a distance from the bottom outer edge to the upper edge region of the gripping jaws corresponds to a thickness of the lens at its edge, or is less than the thickness of the lens by an amount that corresponds to a material removal during the grinding and/or polishing that follows chucking in the collet, or corresponds to the material removal during the grinding and/or polishing that follows chucking in the collet and an additional center thickness tolerance, and wherein when the lens is held by the gripping jaws within the lens receiving section, the collet contacts the lens only at the sidewall portion and the bottom outer edge of the lens receiving section, wherein the shank is in a cylindrical form and has a cylindrical side surface having a first outer diameter, and wherein the gripping jaws includes an outer cylindrical wall portion having a second outer diameter that is greater than the first diameter, a tapered outer wall portion between the cylindrical wall portion and the upper edge region, and a lower outer surface that perpendicularly and radially inwardly extends from the cylindrical wall portion towards an axial direction of the collet and is connected to the cylindrical side surface of the shank at a transition region between the shank and the gripping jaws.