NASHUA, NH—In January 2008, Optoelectronics Report profiled our first Laser Focus World online blog: Larry’s VC View (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/330419). Eleven months later, we are proud to announce our second online blog, “Working Smart in Photonics,” from Sarah Diggs, a leading authority on technical training and process improvement for the photonics industry.
“Steve Anderson and LFW have graciously asked me to write a biweekly blog focusing on some very practical and necessary skills needed by optics and laser practitioners; such as the correct way to handle, clean, and inspect optics, how to perform a perfect optical alignment quickly, how are optics supposed to behave and what are you supposed to do when they don’t, and much more,” says Diggs in her first blog entry in November.
Diggs has successfully developed and launched technical training courses and certification programs for the photonics industry since 1999 and her Laser Technology Series program (http://opticstraining.com) currently has more than 10,000 corporate trainees on-course via corporate intranet learning systems. Some of her clients include Spectra-Physics, Coherent, KLA-Tencor, Carl Zeiss Meditec, JDSU, Lightwave Electronics, SPIE, NASA, The Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman, and the USMC and USAF. Her blog encourages audience participation: “As an avid visitor of LFW online for some time now, I’m looking forward to contributing my ‘lessons learned’ to you, as well as interacting in lively discussions where I can continue to learn from you! My focus is always going to be on process improvement and process control in order to increase your value to your company and to increase your company’s bottom line.” Diggs adds, “And with today’s sketchy economy, learning what we can do to help ourselves and the companies we work for is paramount.”
Diggs will begin her series of blogs with a discussion on the correct way to handle, clean, and inspect optics. “If there ever was a HOT topic with differing opinions, this is it…for instance, what solvent works best? (methanol, IPA, acetone, some combination of solvents, Windex, and how about spitting on them); what lens tissue should you use? (I’ve seen everything from diapers to towels used for cleaning steel tubing); what cleaning method is recommended for most optics? (one swipe in one direction, a circular wipe, how about a razor blade?)”
To access Diggs’ blog, click the BLOGS link at the top of the www.laserfocusworld.com home-page navigation bar and follow the link.
—Gail Overton