Method for manufacturing optical element and device for manufacturing same
AssigneeOlympus Corporation
InventorsYusuke Nakagawa, Daigo Hirata, Koji Miyake, Masato Nakahama, Hiroyuki Seki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for manufacturing an optical element, the method including: heating an optical element material by suspending it in a gas; supplying the heated optical element material from a direction which intersects a central axis interconnecting centers of a first mold and a second mold to a space between molds in a non-contact state, the space between molds being a space between the first mold and the second mold; pressurizing the optical element material supplied to the space between molds by the first mold and the second mold; and cooling the pressurized optical element material.
Claims10
A method for manufacturing an optical element using first and second molds and a heater, the first and second molds being initially spaced apart to define a space there between, a central axis extending through the center of the first and second molds, the method comprising:
- heating an optical element material by suspending it in a gas inside the heater;
- moving the heater into the space between the first and second molds but stopping the heater before it reaches the central axis;
- ejecting the heated optical element material from the heater in a direction which intersects the central axis such that the heated optical element material arrives in the space in a non-contact state;
- using the first and second molds to pressurize the heated optical element material located in the space;
- and
- cooling the pressurized, heated optical element material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.