Apparatus and method for polishing a flat surface using a belted polishing pad

An apparatus for polishing an object having a flat surface, comprising:

• a looped belt having a polishing paid firmly glued to an outer surface of said looped belt to provide an uniform polishing rate on any point of the flat surface;
• a holding assembly having a first pulley held by a first pulley fixture, and a second pulley held by a second pulley fixture, said first pulley being driven by a driving means to impel a looped belt running around said first pulley and said second pulley, said second pulley fixture having a pulley adjusting means to adjust said second pulley fixture and said second pulley to control the tension of said looped belt;
• said pulley adjusting means comprising a first controlling means having a shaft assembly to control a linear tune movement of said second pulley fixture to or from said first pulley fixture along a plane defined by said looped belt;
• a second controlling means having a pair of independently adjustable ball screws and ball nuts to control a rotational tune movement of said second pulley fixture around an axis perpendicular to the plane of said looped belt;
• and a third controlling means to control a rotational tune movement of said second pulley fixture around an axis of said linear tune movement;
• a handling means for holding the object against said looped belt for polishing;
• and
• said apparatus being spatially arranged in a multiplicity of orientations with respect to an installation space on which said apparatus is securely installed such that said flat surface of the object is being held by said handling means with respect to a polishing plane defined by said looped belt in such a manner that the normal vector to said polishing plane is substantially non-parallel to the gravitational acceleration vector.