Sometimes bigger is just better. And when you really need a large optic, there’s no small optic that can substitute. But large optics are expensive, and not just a little more. When you scale up the size of an optic beyond a certain point, expect the cost to increase exponentially rather than simply linearly. There’s a reason for this. Manufacturing large optics comes with immense challenges, and while these are challenges that we can overcome, it’s not cheap to do so.
Here we’ll look at a few of the many applications of large scale optical components, and just what makes them so special. Then we’ll examine the difficulties facing large scale optics metrology and manufacturing, and how we can work to surmount them. At Avantier, we specialize in custom optics, and that includes manufacturing whatever special optics our customers need— even when they push the boundaries of manufacturing.