Toward a Mechanical Mechanism for Material Removal in Magnetorheological Finishing

Interest in magnetic finishing has increased greatly during the past decade [1-3]. Among the various approaches, the most recently developed process is called magnetorheological finishing (MRF) [2,3]. In MRF, a magnetorheological suspension is used to polish optical glasses and other materials. A non-uniform magnetic field is applied between the workpiece and the carrier surface to increase the flow resistance (such as apparent viscosity and yield stress) of the magnetorheological suspension. Previous studies have indicated that MRF is an efficient finishing method for polishing spheres and aspheres [4, 5]. In what follows, we show that the mechanical properties of a variety of optical materials correlate well with MRF removal rates.