Optometrics Corporation has completed a two year project to upgrade the precision of two of its three ruling engines and the facilities in which they operate. The engines are the source for highly precise original diffraction grating masters for Optometrics’ premier grating replication facility. The ruling engines also produce original gratings for high power wavelength tunable or single line laser applications.
In addition to tripling the size of the previous production area for these operations, facility improvements include improved vibration isolation, and improved air quality and temperature control systems.
The Michigan Ruling Engine was originally designed and built at the University of Michigan in 1923. This machine originally operated with a strictly mechanical indexing system. This system limited the groove spacings to a handful of non-standard spacings, by today’s metric standards. The addition of a long travel nano positioning stage system has improved the accuracy and flexibility of the original machine. Any groove spacing is now available for ruling. The addition of an air bearing stage to replace the original mechanical slide for the diamond motion has greatly improved the straightness and quality of the grooves.
The Moore Ruling Engine was built in Connecticut in 1975. This ruling engine is now equipped with a custom state of the art closed loop interferometric control system. This positioning system has the ability to control the groove placement accuracy to within a few nanometers of absolute theoretical position, ensuring the highest ruling quality for both Visible and UV blazed gratings. The custom software also permits variable line spacing (VLS) rulings, a capability previously unavailable.
These improvements represent a significant investment and demonstrate Optometrics’ commitment to continually improving the quality, capability, and capacity of the ruled grating product offerings.
Please contact us with your grating requirement.
