Oct 30 2008
QED Technologies (QED), the pioneer and unique provider of revolutionary optical manufacturing solutions, Magnetorheological Finishing (MRF®) and Subaperture Stitching Interferometry (SSI®), expands its line of standard MRF polishing systems with the introduction of its Q22-2000F. The Q22-2000F is capable of precision polishing large monolithic or light-weighted optics up to two meters in size and can polish a wide range of geometries including planos, spheres, aspheres, freeforms, prisms and cylinders.
The fabrication of large optics has traditionally been performed by only a few optics manufacturers with specialized equipment, expertise and facilities. The final steps of polishing are particularly time consuming and costly, and require skill that is developed and refined over many years. Often, the optician must rely on many iterations and metrology steps during the polishing process to reach final specification.
QED’s Q22-2000F is designed to automate the final steps of polishing and figuring with speed and determinism, and aims to reduce long lead times and unpredictability, while increasing accuracy. What previously took weeks or months to polish now has the ability to be completed in days.
“The Q22-2000F is designed to bring to large optics all of the benefits and flexibility that our other MRF systems brought to standard-size optics manufacturing,” says Marc Tricard, Director of Business Development of QED Technologies. “Now, the industry has an automated process for polishing large, sophisticated optics that is fast, predictable and cost effective.”