Reverse Optical Engineering Services
Service Detail from Shanghai Optics
In these situations, reverse engineering the lens component could be a cost-effective way of getting your project back on track.
What Is Reverse Optical Engineering?
Optical reverse engineering is a process optical engineers use to understand and redesign an existing optical lens or assembly. As the name implies, reverse engineering requires you to start with a finished product and work backwards, deconstructing the optic system to determine how its components produce — or fail to produce — a desired effect. After a thorough study of the system, engineers can either recreate it or redesign it to better meet a client’s needs.
You may decide to use an optical reverse engineering program if:
- You need to replace an off-the-shelf product due to its price or availability
- You don’t have access to the full specifications of a lens you rely on
- You want to improve an off-the-shelf lens to fulfill challenging requirements
How Does Reverse Optical Engineering Work?
Optical reverse engineering uses a variety of techniques and tactics to form a complete understanding of the optical system. At Shanghai Optics, our reverse engineering process involves in-depth study of the optical lenses and lens assembly. Our reverse engineering program follows certain steps to produce reliable and useful results:
- Sample testing: Our optical engineers start by testing the sample as an entire system, which gives us an idea of how effectively the system performs its intended tasks.
- Disassembly and mapping: Next, we disassemble the system and study its construction. In this stage, we separate the optics from mechanical components, mapping their arrangement and attributes.
- Optical characteristic measurement: After mapping the assembly, we conduct additional tests on the optics. Using a range of cutting-edge metrology equipment and analyses, we determine the dimension, radius, surface accuracy, air space, centering, coating and refractive index of every lens.
- Redesign: Once we understand the optic system’s construction, we can begin redesign. The techniques used in this step will differ depending on your goals for the study.
After reverse engineering the optical component and either replicating or improving the design, we’ll manufacture the new system and use Modular Transfer Function (MTF) and other measurements to show how the redesign is equivalent to or can achieve better results than the original.