Ross Optical Blog: The Latest News & Research

In previous posts we have offered advice on designing optical systems for ease of assembly, performance, and manufacturability. Incorporating cost considerations into optical design is another important part of the process. The topic of cost optimization could fill an entire course (like Rich Youngworth’s), but for starters, here are four critical design traps that will always increase your system cost.

Newton's Cradle: The end-user market impacts OEMs and vendors further up the supply chain.

Supply Chain Challenges

Being an original equipment manufacturer is a weighty responsibility. As an OEM you provide critical components for your customers’ products, and you never want to be the bottleneck that holds up production.

OEMs of optical products face special challenges. Optical elements require precision fabrication, which can entail a long lead time. Those lead times are compounded when a component requires custom optics. In such a situation it can become difficult to supply a customer’s needs consistently without ending up with an expensive inventory of unsold components.

Coating choices must be an integral part of the optical design process, not an afterthought. This article presents four ways you can leverage early coating decisions to improve the final performance and overall cost of your design.

At Ross Optical, we are proud to provide components and designs that meet our customers' unique needs. Sometimes, though, customers request solutions that would violate the laws of physics. Below we give three examples of laws that we cannot break, and ways we can work around these barriers.

Customer satisfaction rises again in 2015

We recently completed our 2015 customer survey and were pleased to find that customer satisfaction is once again on the rise, at 4.65 out of 5. Customers praised our responsiveness, design prowess, and range of components and coatings. We're thrilled with this feedback, but we know we can always do more for those we serve. Read on to learn how we've expanded our capabilities. 

SPIE Optifab is shaping up to be a great event in Rochester, N.Y. next week. The sold-out exhibition will feature optical fabrication equipment and technologies from around the world. The show is best recognized for its educational track, though.

When Regular Optics Win

Engineers are invariably drawn to new technology. It is important to realize, though, that sometimes old ways are the best. This is particularly true when considering whether to use aspheric lenses in an optical design. We at Ross Optical have certainly embraced the recent advances in asphere fabrication, as evidenced by our range of aspheres. With that said, we also stock a huge range of hard-to-find, large-diameter, spherical doublets and triplets.

In our last post we explained the three top technical factors that can cause long lead times in optical manufacturing. It’s not all bad news, though. As an experienced partner in optical design and manufacturing, we know how to work with customers to minimize delays. In this article we explain two ways that Ross Optical can help reduce lead times… and two steps that you can take that will help us help you!

Advantages of Aspheres

Many optical designers have found aspheric lenses to be a favorable solution in situations where conventional spherical optics fall short. In applications such as medical devices and instrumentation, scanners, zoom and range-finding optical systems, and hand-held image capture devices, aspheres are often the key to more compact, higher performing optical designs.

Micro optics are enabling the development of ever-more compact, portable, and disposable optical systems. Especially for industries that require a high level of precision, one of the challenges of designing micro optics systems is achieving reduced size and weight without compromising quality and performance. Here are a few ways that a designer or manufacturer can improve the quality of your optical design: