What is an optical coating?

Optical coating or thin films is a production process in which products such as glasses, mirrors, computer screens and optical parts are covered with metals. The optical coating gives the products the possibility to reflect light in different ways, as opposed to unloaded products. The coating is usually done using machines operated techniques that program or supervise machine processes. Some machines perform automated processes that may not be carefully supervised.

There are different types of requirements for an optical coating. In some cases, as in mirrors, the desired effect is to produce a high -degree product. By selecting materials with the opposite refractive levels and stacking them, they increase the reflection of the finished product. For cheap mirrors, it would be a typical optical coating material by aluminum glass coating. More expensive coatings such as silver, which result in more expensive mirrors, have a higher quality, because Gyo, reflects more light.

in the PopaA girl of lenses used for microscopes or cameras is used to refract of light, rather to reflect. This is called a dielectric coating and its use is not only for consumers, but also for scientific devices such as binoculars and lasers. Metal layers such as magnesium and fluoride are applied to objects requiring a coating (called substrate) and reflection or refractive levels can be titrated depending on the number and thickness of the layers, the type of materials and the coating processes used.

One of the most productive companies that used the optical coating in great favor was the California optical Laboratory Incorporated, which became the main employer in the 1970s of the relatively small town of Santa Rosa. They designed products such as non -reflective computer screens, Windows for the Space Shuttle, and mirrors for Chandra X -ray.

growing skill and inoThe company's flesh was interested in greater corporation, JDS Uniphase, which then bought the company at the end of the 90s. While this step seemed to transmit an even greater ability to increase production, instead ended in dismantling virtually the entire optical coating operation. This year's productivity decline led to the loss of jobs of approximately 1000 people.

The fall of society coincided with the telecommunications accident, because a large part of JDS Uniphase during this time was intended for optical fiber components. Since then, most of the optical coating has moved overseas. In the US there are some companies with small operations dedicated to the paint of several specified products. Yet start -up businesses are subject to a high level of failure and many of the older machines are now sold abroad, such as India or China. It is assumed that the production of the voptic coating will only be effective if new overseas companies employ US consultants to repair machines if mProblems are because this technology was primarily used and patented in the United States.