Optical Components Reference Materials

Description: What are the latest trends dominating the robotics and automation world? Are robots still in demand? Where are these awe-inspiring automated technologies headed? And what optical components are used ...

Description: Knight Optical, the leading global supplier of on-spec, metrology-tested optics, has revealed its latest product offering - a trio of components that are suitable for a wide range of laser varieties, ...

Description: Currently, industry news is utterly humming with stimulating updates on machine vision developments from across the globe. As well as remarkable technological releases, thought-provoking conferences ...

Description: Although they’re utilised for a diverse range of uses, most varieties of these optics share one commonality. Besides the precision of all three types, most Gratings, Graticules and Resolution ...

Description: When we are selecting or browsing online about optics, we hear the suppliers and authorized resources mentioning Optical Aberrations all the time, and there are such a fair number of them, including ...

Description: For optical imaging instruments and components, understanding the basic concept of FOV (Field of View) is fundamental for selecting the appropriate optical lenses and components that meet your ...

Description: Thin film polarizer products are called polarizers, which control the polarization direction of a specific light beam. When natural light passes through the polarizer, the light whose vibration ...

Description: Optical Filters are available in an array of choices and are employed for a wide and diverse range of applications. As a global supplier of stock and custom-made optics, Knight Optical runs through ...

Description: What do you expect most when you are in the dark? Of course it is a pair of eyes that can see through the dark, and an infrared lens is this kind of eyes that can perceive heat and see through the ...

Description: The 3D capabilities of Time-of-Flight (TOF) cameras open up new opportunities for a number of applications. One of the challenges of TOF systems is due to the high modulation frequency operating ...

Description: In the finale of its three-part military and defence explorative blog that uncovers some of the high-spec technologies and optics used within these discerning sectors, Knight Optical explores the ...

Description: An informative guide for the use of thermal imaging cameras in industrial applications. ...

Description: Following the substantial rise that the e-commerce industry has experienced in the past few years and the consequential strain placed on warehousing facilities, sales growth is starting to slow ...

Description: Hangzhou Shalom EO has successfully developed a double surface polishing method for processing high precision optical windows or substrates, made from N-BK7 and UV Fused Silica, which are one of the ...

Description: The existence of dirt, contaminants, smudges, stains, and particulates on the optical surfaces of optics could be impeding and disturbing the proper operations and functions of optics. Hence, in order ...

Description: Filter features such as high transmission, steep edges, low ripple and deep blocking are important when testing many samples, says Dr. Rance Fortenberry, director of technology at Alluxa ...

Description: Waveplates and retarders are common optical components to alter the polarization state of light. Understanding the strength and weaknesses of different kinds of waveplates and retarders are a basic ...

Description: As a leading supplier of ultra-high-precision optical components for integration with high-specification military and defence systems, Knight Optical is uncovering innovations within the industry in ...

Description: Several all-important necessities are considered when providing optics for high-spec military and defence applications. Here at Knight Optical, we've been working with these discerning industries for ...

Description: SGD Pharma, a global leader in glass pharmaceutical packaging, chose AMETEK Land's Near Infrared Borescope (NIR-B-656- GLASS) in-furnace thermal imaging system to replace its existing CCTV system and ...

Description: Thai Glass, one of the leading glass producers in Thailand, is optimizing production quality after installing AMETEK Land’s advanced thermal imaging technology. In 2020 the company decided to ...

Description: DayOptics Inc., A company specializing in the design, manufacture and sale of optical and crystal components, has made a series of successful cases in high-power products in recent years. For example, ...

Description: This month, Knight Optical is excited to unveil a brand-new range of Fluorescence Filter Sets. As its first product launch of the year, the announcement comes as welcome news to those working on ...

Description: If you're an avid follower of our blogs, you'll know that we're passionate about technologies (both current and old), pioneering, unique systems and remarkable, new methods of doing things. As we ...

Description: LED is a new generation of light source that converts electric energy directly into light energy through semiconductor.LED lighting lamps are widely used in indoor and outdoor lighting occasions due ...

Description: Optical design is the process of studying application requirements and designing optical systems to meet specific needs of optical instruments. For a complex device, the entire system may include many ...

Description: There's a wide variety of different optical components that are used in laser applications. Of course, as the case is with all our projects, every design differs, and there's no one-size-fits-all ...

Description: When selecting your machine vision lens there are a number of specifications you will want to keep in mind. The lens you choose will determine both the image quality and processing speed of your ...

Description: One of the primary component used in astronomical telescope is a parabolic or near parabolic shaped mirror with a f number typically larger than F4. With this f number and parabolic shape, there is a ...

Description: Optical prisms have at least two polished and flat surfaces which are designed to perform different functions such as changing the direction of light, combining or splitting optical beams, providing ...

Description: Knight Optical - the leading global supplier of custom-made optical components - has met a universal increased requirement for high-precision ultraviolet (UV) optical components for high-performing ...

Description: Lens distortion is a cosmetic-type optical aberration which does not decrease the amount of information in an image. It occurs when information is displaced geometrically, and while it changes the ...

Description: Alcohol production across sites worldwide is a hive of activity as brewers, distillers, winemakers, and the like begin to turn their attention to this year's harvests and manufacturing processes. In ...

Description: Polymer optics, also known as plastic optics, are specialized optics made from highly transparent organic polymer materials, or optical polymers. At Shanghai Optics we manufacture high quality polymer ...

Description: 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 ...

Description: A prism is a transparent object surrounded by two planes that intersect but are not parallel to each other. The most important parameters of a prism are the angle and material. Prisms are widely used ...

Description: Peak-to-Valley (PV) and Root-Mean-Square (RMS) are two common parameters used to measure the difference between an ideal optic surface to the actual optic surface. Historically the PV is used more ...

Description: For this month's optics spotlight, Knight Optical - the leading supplier of on-spec, metrology-tested and custom-made optical components - groups together two of its most popular optical components. ...

Description: Here at Knight Optical, we've observed a peak in requirement for our custom-made Calcium Fluoride (CaF2) Optical Components. To coincide with this proliferation, we're placing these in-demand optics ...

Description: Optical alignment and micro-optic positioning are challenging, time-consuming processes. Tiny positional variations in photonic and optical manufacturing can mean the difference between success and ...

Description: By giving tomorrow's wheeled computers a 3D view of the world, objects can be more accurately categorized and evaluated in real time. In this way, LIDAR is the enabling technology for the coming ...

Description: The rotor is in contact with the stator. The elliptical rotation makes it rotate in the opposite direction of the ultrasonic traveling wave due to the frictional force by elliptical rotation. ...

Description: The main difference between infrared optical systems and visible optical systems is that only a limited number of materials can be effectively applied to the mid-wave infrared and long-wave infrared ...

Description: Excessive waste is a universal issue that we're all fighting to change. Economic growth and industrialisation have led to more waste being generated and carelessly disposed of over the years. So, with ...

Description: The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference - or as it's otherwise acknowledged 'COP26' - sent waves through the sphere in November. As world leaders gathered inside Glasgow's SEC for the 26th ...

Description: In this blog, Knight Optical - the leading global supplier of on-spec, metrology-tested optical components - explores the ground-breaking technologies that are set to change the face of the beauty ...

Description: The company's unique multi-band optical filter design is integral to Texas A&M's Exoplanet Transmission Spectroscopy Imager (ETSI) instrument. ...

Description: While COVID-related repercussions have impacted the world over the past year and a half, Knight Optical – the leading supplier of on-spec, metrology-tested optical components – has ...

Description: In this blog, Knight Optical – the leading supplier of stock and custom-made premium-quality optical components – investigates some popular uses for its Infrared (IR) Windows and talks ...

Description: The adoption of facial recognition technology in today's tech-savvy world is rife, and, unlike many perceived a few decades ago, it's not just high-tech, futuristic devices that sport the tech. Here, ...

Description: Active alignment in 6 degrees of freedom provides the best conditions for high image quality when it comes to aligning multiple lenses. Hexapod micro-motion robots are a novel technology that delivers ...

Description: Low light conditions create difficult conditions for imaging applications from astronomy to microscopy. Low light intensity means neither the resolution of the chip nor the exposure time for changing ...

Description: Water - the single most precious resource for all. Without it, there simply wouldn't be life. Whether it's potable or non-potable, every drop of water makes a difference, and each continent faces ...

Description: With the maturity of lens applications such as digital cameras, smart phones, and security monitoring, emerging fields such as automotive imaging and infrared thermal imaging will become new forces ...

Description: The vision is farther, the world is closer; don't you want to know what is happening "thousands of miles away". "Clairvoyance" no longer exists only in mythology. The large zoom electric zoom lens in ...

Description: Some optical filters are only installed on the lens when they are used, such as polarizers, grayscale filters, while some are installed in front of the lens for a long time, such as UV lenses. At ...

Description: An 8-inch(20.32 cm) CaF2 single crystal was grown by the Bridgman method. The crystal has complete appearance and no macroscopic defects such as cracking and scattering. After orientational cutting, a ...

Description: The term 'payload' is theoretically defined as a vehicle's revenue-producing cargo; however, in terms of aerospace, the name denotes the elements of a spacecraft that have been deployed to generate ...

Description: Compared with the film age, photographers in the digital age need a lot fewer filters, but there are still some optical filters that are still necessary. Part of it is because it takes time and effort ...

Description: An achromatic lens, often called an achromat, is a type of optical lens capable of correcting chromatic aberration, a distortion that occurs when glass splits white light into multiple ...

Description: As the name suggests, an aspheric lens is a lens with a shape other than that of a regular sphere or cylinder. These lenses, which come in a variety of shapes, are used to correct spherical aberration ...

Description: A beam splitter (or beamsplitter) is an optical component used for splitting light into two separate beams, usually by wavelength or polarity. It can also be used, in reverse, as a beam combiner, to ...

Description: Shanghai Optics colored glass filters are high quality absorption filters made of colored glass. They allow certain wavelengths of light to pass unimpeded, while blocking other wavelength ranges to a ...

Description: Rod Lens, Light Pipe Homogenizing Rods ...

Description: As the name suggests, a cylindrical lens is an optical lens with a cylindrical or semi-cylindrical shape. Like a spherical lens, a cylindrical lens has one curved and one flat side. Unlike a spherical ...

Description: A freeform optical component is not symmetric around its optical axis. It provides some attractive features to optical designers to correct multiple aberrations with fewer optical surfaces, and make ...

Description: While originally made of glass, the Fresnel lens can be found in a large variety of substrates and sizes. Nowadays, Fresnel lenses are made of plastic because of the lightweight traits of plastic ...

Description: At Shanghai Optics we produce a wide range of quality infrared optics, including lenses, prisms, windows, mirrors, and laser and imaging assemblies. Our state of the art equipment allows us to achieve ...

Description: Laser optics includes all the optical elements and optical systems used within lasers, or for manipulating-or transmitting-laser light. Laser optics components have more stringent requirements on ...

Description: Light Pipe Homogenizing Rods are tubes which transits natural light collected by light collection. Light pipe Homogenizing Rods could be distinguished into straight light pipe and bending light pipe ...

Description: Micro optics are very small optical systems, typically between a few micrometers to a millimeter in size. They include optical fibers with a microscale core diameter, mini diffractive optical ...

Description: Optical filters selectively allow certain wavelengths of light to pass freely while blocking other wavelengths. Shanghai Optics manufactures a wide range of optical filters for engineering, ...

Description: Optical mirrors are precision optics with a highly polished plane or curved surface which reflects light. At Shanghai Optics we manufacture custom optical mirrors for a wide range of applications. ...

Description: Optical windows are flat plates made of optically transparent material, designed to allow light into an optical instrument. They can also be used to protect a light source from an outside environment. ...

Description: Spherical lenses, also known as singlets, are optical lenses with curved surfaces that cause light rays to converge or diverge. They are widely used in imaging applications. Conjugate ratio, lens ...

Description: Today, very precise path length control in optical delay lines are critical to techniques in transient absorption spectroscopy (using pump-probe), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and ...

Description: Alluxa's optical filters, specially designed for the advanced fluorescence spectrometer on the Mars Perseverance Rover, landed safely on Mars, Feb. 18, 2021. ...

Description: Here, Knight Optical - the leading supplier of custom-made and stock premium-quality optical components - uncovers all you need to know about Planoconvex Lenses. What are Planoconvex Lenses? As the ...

Description: "ETSI and the CMI technique may offer a gateway for characterizing almost all transiting exoplanets and potential habitability from ground-based observatories," according to the collaborative white ...

Description: The penta prism uses the reflection of the two surfaces to deflect the beam by 90° while maintaining the parity of the image. The deviation of the beam does not change the slight rotation of the ...

Description: There's so much that we can learn from the natural world that surrounds us, and unbeknownst to some, there are elements within our lives that imitate organic movements and strategies. Here, Knight ...

Description: Alumina is produced by firing a tightly packed powder form of Al2O3 which includes some binder material. ...

Description: Alumina (Al2O3) is one of the most widely specified, general-purpose technical ceramics. All aluminas are very hard and wear resistant, with high compressive strength even against extreme temperatures ...

Description: Sapphire is an anisotropic, rhombohedral crystal form of Aluminum Oxide. ...

Description: As a leading supplier of custom-made and stock optical solutions, Knight Optical drives the industry with premium-quality optics for the increasingly popular field of UVC sterilisation and ...

Description: How do Interference Bandpass Filters Work? Used for a wide range of uses and across a broad spectrum of industries, Interference Bandpass Filters are extremely useful for applications that require ...

Description: Optical Thin Film Coating Beam Splitter Coatings Anti-Reflection Coating (AR) High Reflective Metal Coatings High Reflective Coatings Partial Reflective Coatings Aspheric lenses can improve image ...

Description: A dichroic filter, thin-film filter, or interference filter is a very accurate color filter used to selectively pass light of a small range of colors while reflecting other colors. By comparison, ...

Description: Generally used for architectural projects, entertainment lighting and landscape lighting, the soda-lime or borofloat based glass can be heat strengthened for additional resistance to thermal shock. ...

Description: Components with frit ink pass through a tempering oven where temperatures are highly elevated and the graphics essentially become part of the glass itself. The graphics are then scratch and abrasion ...

Description: CO2 laser engraving "marking" of select coated and uncoated glass Laser etched graphics, icons and unique identifiers (QR codes and barcodes) ...

Description: Off-axis parabolic mirror (OAP) can get beam focused or collimated at certain angles, and infinite focus is possible, too. The total reflection design eliminates the absorption loss, chromatic ...

Description: A lens is both a telephoto lens and a macro lens. This is a magical innovation, the principle of bionics, just like the human eye is inserted into the lens of a mobile phone. The flowable liquid is ...

Description: The optical filter is made of plastic or glass, added with special dyes. The red filter can only pass the red light and so on. The transmittance of the glass sheet is originally similar to the air, ...

Description: When you think of optics, perhaps one of the most commonly considered applications is photography. Here at Knight Optical, we have provided custom-manufactured optical components for all categories of ...

Description: Last month, NASA made a huge announcement - the success of its Ingenuity helicopter taking flight on Mars, making the UAV the first-ever aircraft to "make a powered, controlled flight on another ...

Description: High-power lasers have a wide range of applications, including precision industrial processing, laser imaging/ranging, and strong field physics applications. Optical lenses and lenses, as the key core ...

Description: Cylinder lenses are similar to spherical lenses because they all use curved surfaces to focus or diverge light, but cylindrical lenses only have the ability to converge or diverge in one direction, ...

Description: A double concave lens is also called a negative spherical lens. The middle of the lens is thin, the edge is thick, and it is concave, so it is also called a concave lens, which has a divergent effect ...

Description: Here at Knight Optical, we supply a range of stock and custom-made optical components for an array of scientific fields of study. In our most recent blogs, we've explored how our optics are used ...