When you need a custom lens design, the stakes are high. A single misstep in the optical design process can cause delays, added costs, or optics that don’t perform in the real world. Whether your project involves AR/VR display testing, industrial inspection, or remote sensing, you need a design and manufacturing process you can trust.
At Eckhardt Optics, our team of optical engineers has refined a 10-Step Lens Design and Manufacturing Process that guides your project from initial specification to fully tested hardware. By combining decades of optical engineering expertise with advanced tools like Zemax and rigorous MTF testing, we help you minimize risk, shorten lead times, and ensure reliable optical performance.
Instead of wondering what happens after you send a specification or PO, you’ll know exactly how your lens moves through design, manufacturing, and testing. Our process gives you confidence, keeps projects on schedule, and ensures your custom optics are built to perform.
10 Step Lens Manufacturing Process
Specifications
We never design a lens until we have a clear agreement on your needs. For this, we use the specification sheet found on the Custom Lens Specification page.
Rough Design
For almost every conceivable application, there is already a lens design that is almost right. We have done so many designs, that our first recourse is to start with one of ours. For novel designs, we often refer to the Appendix in Arthur Cox’s “A System of Optical Design” or the patent literature for lenses that approximate the desired performance. We then use a lens design program such as Don Dilworth’s SYNOPSYS and Zemax to modify the starting point so that it meets the customer’s specifications.
Quotation
With a complete specification in hand, and a rough design that meets it, we can provide a quotation for the project.
Final Design
A rough design is sufficient for quoting, but more work is required to maximize performance. We often use multiple lens design programs to tweak the design, using SYNOPSYS’ simulated annealing and overnight or weekend Zemax Hammer optimization.
Finishing
We have a detailed 17 step finishing process that includes minimizing glass cost, using round number thicknesses and diameters, tolerancing and production drawing generation. It is common to iterate between design and finishing as we work through the process.
Quote & Order Optics
For our customer quotation, we use prices from recent similar lenses, but that is insufficient for production. Our manufacturing partners normally give us quotes overnight. Production can take 6 – 12 weeks.
Design Mechanical Components
Designing and manufacturing the lens barrel, spacers, retaining rings and any other mechanical components takes less time than manufacturing the lens elements, so we generally leave that until after the glass is ordered. Careful attention is paid to keeping the parts easy to fabricate to achieve the required precision at minimum cost.
Quote & Order Mechanics
We order the metal parts so they will arrive at roughly the same time as the glass elements.
Assemble
We have the tools and know-how to assemble lenses in-house. For prototype quantities, this is our standard procedure. However, for high-volume production, we contract this work our to our manufacturing partners.
Test
Every lens must pass our rigid quality inspection before it reaches the customer’s hands. Our MTF testers are state of the art for speed and accuracy. We stand behind our lenses. For more information on MTF testing visit our page here: https://www.eckop.com/resources/optical-testing/mtf-testing/.
Get Started
If better, systematically designed optics would enhance your product, Eckhardt Optics will work with you to design and manufacture a custom tailored solution. Contact or call us for a consultation.