Fully automated centering and bonding of lenses for high-quality objectives

Modern high-performance optical systems require new technologies for alignment and joining processes. With the established OptiCentric® Bonding 5D TRIOPTICS offers a technology that provides high-precision lens mounting based on adhesive bonding. With innovative alignment bonding in 5 dimensions, the lens surfaces are aligned to the tube with accuracies below 1 μm in x, y, z direction and below 2 arcsec in Θx and Θy direction. This fine-adjustment method doesn’t dependent on mechanical tolerances because the lens can move freely in the frame. By using high-resolution autocollimators as well as tactile and optical distance sensors the accuracy of each lens is checked after each step of machining. This procedure facilitates the stacking of several lenses into one tube without further costly alignment steps of sub-cells. This reduces the process steps and makes the multilens mounting into a tube more efficient. Furthermore, glue bonded lenses without sub-cells save space and weight due to waiver of set-screws and shims. Integrated into the production line this technology allows a greater degree of accuracy of optical systems and new design opportunities for more compact and higher-quality lenses. The highly flexible OptiCentric® Bonding 5D can be quickly converted to other types of lenses. This technology is also suitable for clean room applications.