S&TR | April 2001 Page 1 of 4

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April 2001
€
The Laboratory
in the News
€
Commentary by
Bert Weinstein €
A New Kind
of Biological €
Research

€
The World's Most
Accurate Lathe
€
Leading the
Attack on Cancer
€ THE wood lathe in a home workshop is remarkably similar to Livermore's Large Optics
Electronic Memory Diamond Turning Machine. Both spin a workpiece while a cutting tool cuts the revolving
Goes High Rise € surface. But their end products bear little resemblance. Built to form large, irregularly shaped
mirrors for experimental lasers, the LODTM (pronounced "load 'em") leaves behind a gleaming
Patents reflective surface that often needs no further finishing. It is the most accurate large machine tool
€ in the world.
Awards Diamond turning is routinely used today to manufacture contact lenses and parts for
€ videocassette recorders. Defense contractors also use diamond turning to make lenses for
heat-seeking missiles and other weapons. All of these products are transmissive optics,
meaning that light passes through them. They are also relatively small with a regular, curved
€ shape. Says engineer Jeff Klingmann, leader of the Precision Systems and Manufacturing
Group, "That type of diamond turning is a whole different animal from the large, reflective optics
€ we do. Reflective optics—mirrors—are often ground and polished. But that doesn't work for
mirrors with aspheric shapes. When the Department of Defense needed large, aspherical metal
mirrors back in the early 1980s, Livermore built LODTM. Producing aspherical shapes is no
€ problem. We just program the shape in, and the diamond tool goes to work."
LODTM can handle a workpiece with a diameter of up to 1.65 meters, a height up to 0.5
€ meters, and a weight of as much as 1,360 kilograms. A diamond the size and quality of a half-
carat engagement ring is secured to a steel shank and carried on the end of a vertically moving
tool bar. The workpiece rotates about 50 times a minute on the horizontal face plate while the
€ diamond tool cuts gossamer threads of aluminum, copper, silicon, gold, or nickel with
unprecedented precision. The LODTM can produce parts with tolerances to 28 nanometers
€ (about a millionth of an inch), accuracy more than 1,000 times greater than that of a
conventional machine tool.
€
Birth of an Ultraprecision
An
Machine

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S&TR | April 2001 Page 2 of 4

€ In the 1970s, researchers were

considering the development of powerful example
experimental lasers as an element of of the
€ aspherical
missile defense. These ideas became part
of the Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star mirrors
€ Wars, a program born in the 1980s during that the
the Reagan administration. The laser Large
system's optics had to be extremely large, Optics
€ Diamond
exotically shaped, and fabricated with a
precision corresponding to a small fraction Turning
€ of the wavelength of light. In meeting those Machine
requirements, LODTM achieved levels of first
accuracy that defied measurement by produced.
€
existing methods. Even today, the
machine's accuracy is such that it cannot be corroborated by the National Institute of Standards
€ and Technology.
Livermore's Precision Engineering Program designed the machine as the culmination of
research in machine tool accuracy. They had determined in the late 1970s that by pushing the
€
limits of precision, they could develop a diamond-turning machine for machining large, oddly
shaped optics to exacting tolerances. LODTM incorporated the results of an exhaustive analysis
€ and elimination of factors that cause machine errors, from the heat of a human body to the
vibration from a heavy truck passing by.
For example, LODTM has several ways to handle the temperature fluctuations that are
€ typically the largest single cause of diamond-turning machining error. Air temperature in the
LODTM enclosure is maintained at precisely 20 degrees Celsius. After the tool is set up,
€ machining does not begin for at least 12 hours to allow the effect of the machinist's body heat to
dissipate. All personnel remain outside the LODTM enclosure while a part is being cut. What
little heat the diamond cutting tool generates is carried away by cutting oil, also maintained at
€ 20 degrees Celsius.
Engineer Jim Hamilton, who translates client needs into specific instructions for LODTM s
€ machinists, says, "We were concerned that construction for the National Ignition Facility over
the last several years might cause us problems. Our building is only about 100 meters away
from the NIF construction site. But the earth moving and other heavy work didn't affect the
€ machine."
The heart of the machine's accuracy is a metrology (measurement) frame isolated from the
€ environment by temperature-controlled water flowing through expanded stainless-steel panels.
The frame is made of super invar, a steel–nickel–cobalt alloy with one of the lowest coefficients
of thermal expansion of any metal. The frame "floats" on LODTM, moving independently from
€ the main machine to give an unstressed, undeformed reference. The part being machined is
thus made relative to this frame, not the main machine components. Seven interferometers on
€ the metrology frame continuously measure the location of the tool relative to the part. The
machine controller uses this information in real time to dictate all machining. This continuous
measurement from an unchanging platform eliminates errors from machine geometry and
€ temperature changes so they do not appear in the part.

€ LODTM in Action
LODTM continues to produce one-of-a-
€ kind, prototype optical devices for possible
future space-based defense systems. The
ultimate client is the U.S. Air Force, with
€ Livermore's technical requirements
coming from TRW Inc. These conical
€ mirrors are made of silicon for a simple,
light, uncooled laser system.
Previously, Livermore used LODTM to
€ produce three secondary mirrors for the
Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea on the Big
€ Island of Hawaii. The Keck telescopes, the
largest and most powerful in the world,
gather infrared light rather than visible
€ light. For infrared astronomy, diamond
turning was the only viable process
€ because the mirrors had to be accurate
right to the edge of the reflective surface.
Processes such as grinding and polishing
€ round off or taper the edge of the critical
surface.
Livermore used two precision
€

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S&TR | April 2001 Page 3 of 4

€ machining tools, the Diamond Turning

Machine #3 and LODTM, to produce the
€ primary mirrors for SPARCLE, an
experiment on National Aeronautical and
Space Administration's (NASA) Space
€ Shuttle. SPARCLE will demonstrate the
ability to measure wind speeds using a
€ space-based lidar system. Diamond
Turning Machine #3 first semifinished an
aluminum blank that was then coated with
€ electroless nickel. LODTM did final
"figuring" in the nickel layer. After leaving
€ Livermore, the mirrors were polished and
gold coated for final use.

€ LODTM Today
The next big project for LODTM may be
€ for NASA scientists who are planning a
new space-based telescope. LODTM has
the capability to machine some or the
€ mirrors for this next-generation version of
the Hubble telescope.
€ A staff of seven operates and maintains
LODTM, about half the number required
when the machine first came on line. Over
€ the years, many original, custom-made
parts have been replaced by commercial
€ ones. The result is a more efficient and
reliable machine that is easier to operate
and maintain.
€ But LODTM is nevertheless a unique
machine, and it must machine parts to (a) National Aeronautical and Space
Administration engineer Holly Cagle examines
€ extremely tight tolerances. Says Steve
SPARCLE's primary mirrors on the Large Optics
Bretz, head machinist on LODTM, "We
spend about 80 percent of our time Diamond Turning Machine (LODTM) spindle. (b) A
€ keeping the machine running properly. close up of a mirror and the diamond tool on
Before I came to Livermore, I was a LODTM.
€ machinist in a regular machine shop.
Working on LODTM is entirely different. Here we have to work very closely with engineers and
experts in computers, electronics, and control systems to eliminate deviations and maintain the
€ required tolerances."
They must be doing something right. Eighteen years after LODTM's first operations,
€ measuring devices are still not sophisticated enough to confirm the machine's accuracy.
—Katie Walter
€
Key Words: Keck telescopes, Large Optics Diamond Turning Machine (LODTM), National
Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA), precision engineering, Strategic Defense
€ Initiative.

€ For further information contact Jeff Klingmann (925) 423-8328 ([email protected]).

€ €
€

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S&TR | April 2001 Page 4 of 4

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