Projects Design Manufacturing Simulation
Optical System Design has extensive experience in most branches of optics. This has been gained in a number of industries, including defence. Optical System Design have worked in most spectral regions from the UltraViolet to the far InfraRed. As well as optical expertise Optical System Design have worked in those areas of computing that are associated with optics, this includes image processing and system simulation.
Background Design Manufacturing Simulation
Optical System Design can undertake projects involving design, manufacturing assistance, staff training and simulation computation.
The client base includes small one-man companies up to large Government Laboratories.
Background Projects Manufacturing Simulation
Our speciality is system, rather than lens design. Typically Optical System Design would undertake the design of the optical aspects of a complete instrument whilst client's staff designed the electronics and mechanical components of the instrument. In the event that a highly specialised lens was required then the design would be subcontracted to a competent specialist, preferably a member of Athene. Simple lenses are within our capability.
The optical design task will include any or all of the following:
Effective overall system design requires that the trade off between different skill areas be studied closely, for example the use of a higher power source to increase instrument performance may or may not be cost effective. The replacement of one moderately priced catalog optical component by a far more expensive special component may allow substantial performance enhancements or greater savings in other areas of the instrument. Optical System Design have wide experience of this area of design which inevitably requires close cooperation with my clients own staff or other consultants.
Working with the client's engineers Optical System Design keep the problems of manufacturability well to the front in the design stage. For example the mechanical disposition of the components and the way they are mounted can impact directly on the ease of assembly and through life stability of the instrument. On occasion Optical System Design have reduced the manufacturing cost and improved performance and stability merely by attention to this crucial aspect of design.
Often the design process is cooperative with the customers own staff, however a formal report is always submitted. This will contain any or all of the following elements.
Designs have included scientific instruments, specialised lighting units and several applications in the leisure industry.
Background Projects Design Simulation
The changes in technology over the last few years and the more competitive nature of the commercial world has required that many companies have started to introduce optical technology into their products. In some cases a very naïve approach to optical manufacturing has proven to be less than satisfactory.
Whilst ideally manufacturability, facilities and staff skills should have been taken into account during the design phase this often has not happened.
In either of these situations Optical System Design can assist by helping with the training of staff in the handling of optical components, in alignment procedures and also the implementation of clean rooms.
It is often the case that the manufacturing problems can be very greatly eased by a complete redesign, however sometimes this is inappropriate. On occasion the same basic design can be made easier to manufacture by a rearrangement of the mechanical assembly so that tightly toleranced separations can be located in the same mechanical structure. These structures may be bought in as sub assemblies manufactured by specialist sub-contractors thus easing the client's manufacturing problems.
The staff training can range from very simple instruction in how to handle optical components, both in stores and in the assembly area, to instruction in alignment techniques. Sometimes it is appropriate to derive these alignment procedures first and then show staff how to implement them. Where appropriate alignment jigs can be devised and manufactured, the manufacture would generally be carried out in the clients workshop.
Background Projects Design Manufacturing
Several projects have involved numerical simulation of optical systems. Typically these have been systems that conventional raytracing programs cannot handle.
One project required highly efficient uniform lighting with very tight space constraints. The solution was to use a series of highly aspheric non symmetric lenses. Optical System Design designed the lenses and then developed data transfer techniques to pass the data to CNC machine tools to allow the manufacture of moulds for injection moulding.
Another project required the simulation of light pipes where the propagation through the pipe is non sequential in the sense that the number of reflections and the order of surfaces at which the reflection took place is not defined at the start of the simulation. In this case Optical System Design supplied to the client a program which he used to optimise the design himself.
Optical System Design have two IBM PC clones with a wide range of software. This includes standard packages such as OSLO, AutoCAD, FRED, Excel, Borland C++ Builder and Word as well as more specialised programs. Some of the specialised programs have been written in house.
|
Allan M
Newton |
Tel: 01892
784165 |
|
39 Jonas
Drive |
Fax: 0870
706 1285 |
|
Wadhurst |
Email : allan@opticaldesign.co.uk |
|
East Sussex |
TN5 6RL |