Abstract: A fining and polishing machine and method enable a work piece, suitably a spectacle lens, to be polished with a relative motion between the lens and a tool that is precisely matched to the specific lens prescription. The lens and tool are reciprocated along first and second non-co-linear axes, respectively, and the lens is polished as each reciprocates. The relative motion between lens and tool is equal to the vector sum of their individual motions. By precisely controlling the reciprocation of lens and tool, a wide range of desired motions can be obtained, enabling a lens to be polished to a particular prescription by altering the frequency and/or amplitude of the reciprocating motions along the two axes. A controller drives a pair of actuators which reciprocate the lens and tool in accordance with resident motion equations, as realized with prescription-specific amplitude and frequency parameters received as inputs.

Abstract: A single castable ophthalmic lens polishing lap includes a mounting plate that is adapted for connection to a lap press/cylinder machine and includes a flexible membrane that is affixed to the mounting plate and filled with castable material. A polishing pad is affixed to the flexible membrane. The lap is cast by first applying energy to the castable material that causes it to soften, and to preferably change to a fluid phase, and then pressing the lap against the rough cut back surface of a lens. This causes the castable material to deform so that the lap's curvature is complementary to the lens' prescription curvature. Energy is then removed from the lap so that the castable material solidifies in the desired shape. After polishing, the lap can be recast with another lens having a different prescription.