Northumbria Optical Coatings, Ltd. (NOC) continues to expand. Our long-time British business partner has announced some very positive news: The bookings rose by 150%, and seven new employees were hired.
Ten coaters are utilized in the manufacture of narrow-band, bandpass, and broadband filters, as well as long-pass, short-pass, semiconductor blocking filters, gas-band filters, AR coatings, mirrors, and neutral density filters. The coatings are applied to different substrate materials, such as fused silica, sapphire, germanium, and silicon. The wavelength range currently extends from about 2 µm to 20 µm. NOC is responding to the increasing demand for NIR filters by planning to expand this wavelength range to include 1 µm.
Depending on the filter type and their spectral tolerances, typical batch sizes include 50 filters with a diameter of 25 mm in small coaters and 200 filters with the same diameter in large coaters.
Large coaters are primarily used in the production of AR coatings, neutral density filters, and mirrors. Most filters are coated with a diameter of 3” and cut according to customer specifications. NOC plans to convert one large coater to handle coatings on 4” substrates as well as to purchase a saw to cut the filters.
Webshop
The webshop, which went online in March of 2011, has exceeded all expectations. There are currently up to 500 filters listed online. The product range is constantly being updated and expanded. With a new spectrometer, even more filters will be characterized for the webshop in the future.
The production of these filters according to MIL specifications and the ISO 9001 certification of NOC Ltd. have helped to ensure the high standard of quality of these products. Our partner is constantly optimizing its manufacturing processes as well as its operational and administrative procedures. Its goal is to continue increasing product quality and reduce delivery times.
The application fields of these filters are multifaceted. They extend from industrial and medical gas measurement technology to environmental and exhaust measurement technology to applications in space.
