The first area, and our most recent addition, is diamond machining for the manufacture of molds and prototype plastics optics. We can also offer small-volume production of directly machined plastics optics, as well as production of diamond-machined optics from other materials such as germanium.

We have recently added three significant new diamond machines to the company’s collection of optical surface generating equipment: two two-axis ultraprecision lathes and a four-axis ultraprecision freeform surface generating machine, all fitted with on-machine measuring and compensation devices. The largest diameter that can be turned on our new machines is approximately 24” (600mm), or almost 28" (710mm) with special fixturing. One of the two-axis lathes is fitted with a fast tool servo for the generation of non-rotationally symmetric surfaces, such as phase plates and anamorphic lenses. These machines complement the existing Fresnel lens generating machine, a machine for cutting large linear structures, and a machine for cutting arrays of conventional aspheres, as well as our famed capabilities in making parqueted arrays of lenses.

The picture below shows the diamond machining of an electroless nickel mold insert. This insert was measured to have a surface finish of 2nm Ra. The insert was measured to have a form error of 44nm peak to valley, excluding a 100nm feature in the center due to tool centering. This accuracy was achieved, over a 50mm workpiece diameter, without making use of the on-machine error compensation.