Optical Tooling

Whether you need one piece, a few hundred, or millions, Fresnel Technologies can take your preliminary design through prototyping and testing to production. We offer single point diamond turning and machining, CNC machining, injection and compression mold manufacturing, and tooling for specialized optical surface finishes.

Diamond Turning and Machining

Our diamond machining is ideal for the production of prototype optics and the manufacture of high-quality optical molds. We offer small-volume production of directly machined optics in a variety of diamond-machinable substrates, such as IR and visible transmitting crystals, non-ferrous metals, and polymeric materials.

Our state-of-the-art diamond-turning machines include dual-axis ultraprecision lathes and two four-axis ultraprecision freeform surface generating machines, all fitted with on-machine measuring and compensation devices. Diameters of nearly 28" (710 mm) can be turned.

Mold Production

Fresnel Technologies has extensive experience designing and building molds for lenses and arrays of lenses, from single cavity to high-volume multicavity molds. We have developed many specialized techniques, unique to our company, to permit the molding of high-precision, highly reproducible molded optics. We are very skilled and experienced in the production of molds for flat and curved parqueted arrays of lenses. Fresnel Technologies has the expertise necessary to produce molded optics with submicron features.

CNC Machining

Our facility is also home to a world-class all-CNC machine shop. Our advanced machines are capable of micron-level accuracy. The primary focus of this facility is the building of injection and compression molds for our own and our customers' products. We offer high-precision lathe turning; high-precision 3- and 5-axis milling; and form, wire, and small-hole EDM.

Metrology

FTI has a comprehensive in-house metrology lab, staffed by skilled scientists and technicians. This enables the assessment of quality and verification of compliance with customer specifications throughout the production of prototypes, molds, and molded optics.
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The picture above shows the diamond machining of an electroless nickel mold insert. This insert was measured to have a surface finish of 2 nm Ra. The insert was measured to have a form error of 44 nm peak to valley, excluding a 100 nm feature in the center due to tool centering. This accuracy was achieved over a 50 mm workpiece diameter without on-machine error compensation.
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We are very skilled and experienced in the production of molds for flat and curved parqueted arrays of lenses. An example is the mold for our CM0.77GIV3 lens array, shown above. Fresnel Technologies has the expertise necessary to produce molded optics with submicron features.

Specialized Optical Surfaces

Another area of FTI's tooling expertise is the texturing of mold surfaces to produce a variety of desired optical effects, including gaussian distribution diffusers. These methods are commonly used in illumination optics and passive infrared lens arrays.

Our machining facility enables us to produce prototypes and molds for unusual items, including those lacking rotational symmetry. Examples of optics that we’ve made include:

  • Items with linear symmetry—lenticular arrays, arrays of prisms, diffraction gratings, and cylindrical and acylindrical Fresnel lenses.
  • Fresnel lenses, with conical and aspheric contoured grooves, in diameters > 24" (61 cm).
  • Toroidal Fresnel lenses and anamorphic continuous-surface lenses and domes.
  • Zernike phase plates.
  • Curved acylindrical Fresnel lens arrays of very fast lenslets.
  • Fast, continuous-surface aspheric lenses.
  • Rectangular and hexagonal microlens arrays in large sizes.

Our team’s expertise in the field of ultraprecision machining and other optical specialties make our facilities ideal for production of your optical components.

Have more questions about our optical tooling capabilities? 

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Fresnel Technologies

Fresnel Technologies, Inc. specializes in the design and manufacturing of molded plastic Fresnel lenses, molded polymer optics in general, and infrared-transmitting optical materials. We offer design assistance, diamond machining, prototyping, tooling, and production. Stock or custom, we’re your optics partner.

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101 W. Morningside Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76110

Phone: (817) 926-7474
info@fresneltech.com