Ross Optical Blog: The Latest News & Research

There are some critical steps needed in order to create an effective optical design. Whether a basic design or complex, it is important to find a supplier that can produce your product in a quick, cost-effective way. Ross Optical is a reliable partner known to improve time to market and optimize your product performance.

Our series explains how Ross Optical can help you reduce lead time on your orders. This article will explain the three factors that most impact lead time for optical components:

• Choice of materials
• Method of fabrication
• Method of testing

While these three factors impact any manufacturing process, they present unique challenges in optical manufacturing.

Demand for infrared optical elements has extended beyond just lens assemblies and hot/cold mirrors. Specifically, there is growing interest across the optical industry for bandpass filters, achromats, athermal elements, and polarizing waveplates. The demand spans all IR wavelength bands—near IR (0.75 µm to 1.4 µm), short-wavelength IR (1.4 µm to 3 µm), mid-wavelength IR (3 µm to 8 µm), and long-wavelength IR (8 µm to 15 µm). Advances in sensor and source technology, as well as a changing marketplace, are driving this growth. Demand from three industries stands out as particularly noteworthy:

Stock image, Claudio Ventrella

Have you ever tried to take a picture of a bright full moon or a star-filled sky, only to be disappointed when virtually nothing shows up on your phone screen? The distance and brightness of these objects make it nearly impossible to get a sharp image—and that’s just in our own galaxy.

Innovative optical technology arises from fresh design concepts. Those designs often hinge on the performance of a specific optical element, but sometimes that component can be hard to find. Perhaps the part is only available in limited quantities. Perhaps it has been discontinued. Perhaps the optical element exists, but the specifications are out of line with the design tolerances. Regardless of the reason, absence of a specific part can kill some projects.

Ross Optical is the investigator to hire when you’re looking for something no one else can find. Here’s why:

For better or worse, we do “judge a book by its cover.” Appearance can override our better judgment. It’s tempting to judge the quality of an optical element based on its appearance, but that overlooks the element’s role within the overall optical system. In this article we’ll consider three types of surface irregularities and explore how each type can affect optical performance.

There is more to optical design than designing the optics. A design that works on a computer screen may not work in real life. Here are four best practices to help you design for manufacturability and performance.

Do other optics suppliers think you’re weird for wanting large lenses? We don’t.

As more and more optical suppliers consolidate and streamline their businesses, few continue to carry large diameter lenses. This is problematic because large diameter optics remain critical for precision instruments such as telescopes and imagers.  

Thanks to our network of 21 optical manufacturing partners around the world, Ross Optical stocks a wide variety of standard and hard-to-find optics, including aspheres and micro lenses. What’s more, especially on multiples, we offer these components for 20-40% less than leading catalog prices.

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.