Abstract: With the widespread application of different kinds of small aspherical components, the requirements of their processing technology are also growing highly. However, the polishing for small aspherical surface is still difficult, accuracy and consistency are also poor. A new kind of inclined axis magnetorheological finishing technology is proposed for machining small aspherical surface. Its basic machining principle and characteristic is presented, the angle between the normal line of polishing point and the axial line of polishing head is kept on the constant 45° in the polishing process, and its machining paths are analyzed and calculated. A new inclined axis magnetorheological polishing head is designed, the rotating shell is in outside and the fixed excitation equipment is in inside, and the basic machining principle of polishing head is introduced. Polishing experiments for the small tungsten carbide and monocrystalline silicon aspherical surface with diameter 6 mm are adopted by this machining technology. The experiment results show the workpiece’s surface roughness Ra respectively achieved from 12.1 nm and 10.3 nm before polishing to 3.7 nm and 3.2 nm after polishing, the experiment results demonstrate the feasibility of this technology to polish small aspheric surface.

Key words: Inclined axis, Magnetorheological finishing, Monocrystalline silicon, Small aspherical surface, Tungsten carbide