Special Optics doubles manufacturing capacity with new facility
Precision optical assemblies manufacturer Special Optics (Wharton, NJ), a Navitar company, has purchased a new 25,000 square foot facility in Denville, NJ that it says will support growing customer demands for complex optical solutions including femtosecond-laser eye-surgery optical systems and custom high-numerical-aperture (NA) microscope objectives.
The new building will house state‐of‐the‐art manufacturing equipment for optical sub‐assembly fabrication and final module assembly and testing. According to Steven Morales, general manager of Special Optics, "This will be an ultracontemporary, thoroughly cutting‐edge facility with the extra capacity we need to meet the evolving requirements of our most exacting customers." Special Optics manufactures precision optical systems such as femtosecond laser beam management optics for corneal repair (LASIK) and laser cataract eye surgery, high-NA microscope objectives for two-photon microscopy, life science and semiconductor applications, and other complex optical systems for DNA sequencing, stem cell imaging, laser ablation, and more.
"Rapid growth in advanced laser eye surgery techniques, neuroscience research, and nanophotonics applications has dramatically increased the demand for our precision optical design expertise," said Craig Fitzgerald, VP of business development for Special Optics and Navitar.
Denville is located just 35 minutes from the Newark, NJ airport. "The new location is very convenient for our international customers and is a shorter commute for many of our employees," said Julian Goldstein, president of Navitar. The new facility will more than double Special Optics' current manufacturing capacity and is expected to create additional jobs.
SOURCE: Special Optics; http://specialoptics.com/company/news.html
About the Author
Gail Overton
Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.