Click on this link to see our line of stock aspherical lenses.
Click on this link to see our line of stock cylindrical lenses.
Lenses
are the most common form of optic, and a key development moving the
optics field along has been the creation of stock lenses. It can
take a great deal of money to develop the tooling and do the design
work for a lens, and if that lens is only used by one customer it loses
some value. However, if a stock lens is created in advance, then the
cost of the tooling is borne by many customers and so a few of these
lenses don't have to cost an arm and a leg and they can be shipped
quickly, often within the same day.
Nalux
can make stock lenses that are smaller than 1 mm in diameter, sometimes
just tens of microns in diameter, and these are called microlenses and
can go into some of the most sophisticated equipment in the world such
as the Subaru telescope in Japan. Nalux can make single individual
stock lenses from glass to very exacting tolerances and these stock
lenses can be used in applications such as biodetection equipment for
security devices. Or Nalux can make millions of plastic stock lenses
for mass market applications such as the large f-theta lenses (see
picture in upper left hand corner of this page) which are half an inch
thick and 7 inches long and are used in office printers and copiers.
Nalux
can also make them out of some very exotic materials. One area where
Nalux is a recognized leader is in ultraviolet applications. Many
materials that look clear to the naked eye because they let visible
light pass through are not clear to the UV light that we can see. In
other words, to visible light many materials are a window but to UV
light they are a black wall. Nalux has learned how to work with a
variety of UV materials, both glasses and plastics, enabling high
energy optical systems because UV light is very energetic.
Stock
lenses can also take many forms. They can be perfectly spherical and
most applications fit this description. They can be aspherical,
meaning that the surface does not possess a constant radius but that
the radius of curvature changes depending on the distance away from the
optical axis. Stock lenses can be more free form or torroidal (saddle
shaped) providing optical correction. They can by cylindrical which is
beneficial for laser beam shaping. There can be diffractive stock
lenses which do their focusing by using the principles of constructive
and destructive interference to bring light to a focus. There can be
fresnel stock lenses, which is a lens that has been telescoped down
onto itself.
Stock
lenses are also made by a variety of processing methods. Mask
lithography, diamond milling, and focused ion beam ablation are all
used to make very accurate microlenses. Diamond turning is used to
make very high quality individual stock lenses out of
plastics. Plastic injection molding is used to make all kinds of stock
lenses. No matter the type of optic, Nalux has the equipment and
expertise to help you with your next project.