Whatever the scale of your project, POL can support you in developing the most cost-effective product solution. Projects can range from customers’ initial conceptual ideas, where we support and advise on all aspect of the product development, through to “make to drawing” production support.
POL’s capability to “engineer with light” provides product solutions for all applications across the whole spectrum from UV, through visible to infrared.
POL uses the latest computer optical design software for advanced 3D “unconstrained” optical raytracing, photometric analysis and imaging systems design.
This range of powerful commercial software is further enhanced by our own in-house developed design programs, which give POL specialist capabilities for novel types of optical applications.
These advanced optical ray tracing and photometric mapping routines give real-world simulation results of the optical system to demonstrate the design performance, and in many cases, remove the need for prototyping before moving to production tooling.
The most cost-effective optical designs integrate mechanical features into the optical components to aid assembly and reduce the number of components in the overall assembly.
The POL design team has wide expertise in integrated opto-mechanical design methods, including Design for Manufacture (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) techniques.
In many cases, our opto-mechanical design input has to harmonise with the customer’s overall product aesthetics and the optical components become an important part of the final product styling.
Our optical design programs work directly with our CAD packages and provide a reliable communication to our customers, toolmakers and moulding facilities. Moldflow analyses are also used to determine product and process capability prior to tooling builds.
Compared to traditional optical glass, the refractive index and dispersion range of plastic materials is limited.
Therefore, some systems require a mix of elements produced from different materials or even hybrid glass/plastics constructions. POL’s knowledge of the optical and thermal characteristics of plastics is an essential part of the design process that ensures both high performance and compatibility with other components.
