Mike Bechtold speaks to the attendees of the Winter 2011 SBIR Review Meeting

OptiPro's biannual SBIR Review Meeting continues to grow in popularity after another great turnout for the winter meeting on Tuesday, January 11th. Despite severe winter weather conditions that cancelled flights and altered travel plans, over 70 people were in attendance! We want to thank both Dan Harris of the US Navy and Brian Jones of the US Army for their continued contributions to the SBIR program.

Representatives from over 25 different organizations, universities and optics companies, including the US Navy, University of Rochester, Penn State University, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman watched informative presentations on the advancements taking place in the precision optics industry due to the funding provided by SBIR contracts. In all, there were 16 presentations given throughout the course of the day, 6 of which were presented by OptiPro employees. The other 10 presentations were delivered by Penn State Electro-Optics Center, University of Rochester, TA&T, QED Technologies, Applied Science Innovations, ASE Optics, Optimax Systems, CeraNova, and Third Wave Systems.

After the presentations were completed, attendees stopped by OptiPro's facility to receive a shop tour and view machine demonstrations of OptiPro's eSX 200 and SXL 500 optical grinding machines, ePX 200 spherical polisher, UltraForm Finishing machines, UltraSurf non-contact profilometer, OptiTrace 5000 contact profilometer, and UltraCURV electronic spherometer. Guests also got the chance to enjoy beer, wine, and appetizers while networking before Dan Harris presented the topic of "A Century of Sapphire Crystal Growth" at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester. It was a day packed with interesting presentations on a wide range of topics related to the fabrication of aspheric and conformal optics for the defense industry.

To view pictures from the Winter 2011 SBIR Review Meeting, go to OptiPro's Facebook page by clicking on the following link:

Photos from Winter 2011 SBIR Review Meeting

Download White Paper >>

OptiPro has released the third and final white paper in the asphere fabrication series, titled "Asphere and Freeform Measurement 101" by Scott DeFisher. Like the two white papers that were launched prior to this one, you can download "Asphere and Freeform Measurement 101" on the Laser Focus World website by clicking here.

The precision optics industry is gradually moving toward increasingly complex optical designs. Aspheres are becoming a large portion of manufactured optics. Metrology for these optical shapes is a challenge and various measurement methods have individual strengths and weaknesses. OptiPro has developed a novel solution named UltraSurf, a non-contact measuring system using state of the art, precision motion control. OptiPro designed the UltraSurf to further the manufacturing capabilities of companies producing complex precision optics. Common asphere and freeform metrology is presented along with how the UltraSurf fits in.

To download any of the three white papers in the asphere fabrication series, click on the link below

Asphere Fabrication Series White Papers >>

To learn more about OptiPro's optical fabrication equipment, please contact us by calling 585-265-0160 or send emails to sales@optipro.com.