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Precision optical prisms manufactured to customer specifications.
Product Overview
Powell lenses have a specially shaped aspheric cylindrical surface rather than the flat faces of a conventional prism.
They redistribute a matched input laser beam into a fan of light that forms a line with a more even intensity profile than a simple cylindrical line-forming lens.
Material, dimensions, aspheric profile, fan angle, input beam diameter, design wavelength and coating requirements can be specified for manufacturing review.
Applications
- 3D Machine Vision: A Powell lens projects a laser line across a part so a triangulation camera can measure its height profile.
- Industrial Alignment Projectors: A Powell lens creates a visible reference line for positioning parts during assembly and setup.
- Medical Imaging Positioning Systems: A Powell lens forms a laser reference line used by a positioning module to align a patient with the scan plane.
- Flow Cytometers: A Powell lens shapes laser illumination into a line across the sample stream in an optical excitation module.
Typical Specifications
| Parameter | Standard Grade | Precision Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Materials | N-BK7, Quartz, CaF₂, MgF₂, ZnSe, ZnS, and other optical glass upon request | N-BK7, Quartz, CaF₂, MgF₂, ZnSe, ZnS, and other optical glass upon request |
| Dimensions | 5–250 mm | 5–250 mm |
| Angle Tolerance | ±3′ | ±1″–±30″ |
| Surface Flatness | λ/4 @ 632.8 nm | λ/10 @ 632.8 nm |
| Surface Quality (Scratch–Dig) | 40–20 | 20–10 |
| Coating | AR / HR, etc., to customer requirements | AR / HR, etc., to customer requirements |
Other specifications, materials, and coatings are available upon request.