May 22 2014
Meller Optics, Inc. has introduced custom fabricated sapphire, germanium, and zinc selenide optics for use in gimbaled systems and for front surface protection in unmanned air- and undersea vehicles.
UAVs" />Meller custom fabricates optics for use in gimbaled systems and for outboard surface protection in unmanned air and undersea vehicles.
Meller Optics for unmanned vehicles feature sapphire which is second only to diamond in terms of hardness and provides outboard surface protection for imaging sensors by withstanding sand, saltwater, and other fast moving particulates. Optics for gimbaled systems include sapphire, germanium, and zinc selenide for applications from the mid to far IR, and they can all be fabricated to customer specifications as lenses, mirrors, and windows.
Available in a wide range of shapes and sizes from 0.25" to 10" dia., with varying wall thicknesses, Meller Optics for UAV and UUV applications can incorporate stepped edges and elliptical edge shaping, holes, slots, and wedges for mounting. Flatness can be held to 1/10th wave in the visible and < 2 arc sec. in/in parallelism, with surface finishes from 60-40 to 10-5 scratch-dig, depending upon material and configuration.
Meller Optics for unmanned vehicles are priced according to material, configuration, and quantity. Price quotations are available upon request.
About Meller Optics, Inc.
Founded in 1921, Meller Optics has been providing high quality optics to defense, medical, laser, and industrial markets for 90 years now. Specializing in the grinding and polishing of hard, durable materials such as sapphire and ruby, the company has also developed high-speed, low-cost finishing processes for a variety of optical materials such as laser glasses, fused silica, zinc selenide, germanium, silicon, fluorides, and ceramic materials. Configurations include windows, substrates, lenses, domes, and prisms.
Meller Optics is ISO 9001:2008 certified and in addition to providing standard, off-the-shelf products, they custom fabricate components that meet exacting specifications from delicate, difficult to work with optical materials. They also supply quality Microlux Alumina polishing abrasives and Gugolz optical polishing pitch.