Pneumatically assisted conformal tool for an ophthalmic lens finer/polisher

Claim 1

A conformal tool for fining/polishing ophthalmic lenses comprising: an rigid circular base having a arcuate front surface with a flattened central portion extending from a peripheral flange; a spacer ring of depth less than a depth of said arcuate front surface seated on said flange; a substantially circular air impervious elastic membrane extending across said flattened portion of said arcuate surface; a first clamping ring securing a perimeter of said membrane against said spacer ring with said membrane stretched across a portion of said arcuate surface extending beyond said spacer ring; a substantially hemispherical bladder forming an outer surface conformable to a surface of the lens to be fined/polished; a second clamping ring securing a perimeter of said bladder against said first clamping ring; and means contiguously fixing perimeters of said base, said spacer ring, said membrane, said first clamping ring, said bladder and said second clamping ring to provide a pneumatically discrete chamber between said base, said spacer ring and said membrane and a chamber containing conformable filler between said membrane, said first clamping ring and said bladder, said pneumatically discrete and filler containing chambers together having a substantially fixed volume; said spacing ring having a passage therethrough into said pneumatically discrete chamber whereby air under pressure let into said pneumatically discrete chamber stretches said membrane to increase said pneumatically discrete chamber volume and decrease said filler containing chamber volume.