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Camera Lens News No. 4
Spring 1998 |
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New CZ world record in optical metrology
Ernst Abbe, the genius behind the success of Carl Zeiss was well aware of the fact: You can’t manufacture more precisely than you can measure. As a matter of fact your metrology has to be at least five times more accurate than the manufacturing precision you try to achieve.
Carl Zeiss has always strived for excellence in metrology. And this has paid off time and again. A recent example: Carl Zeiss’s superiority in ultra-high- performance Starlith® lenses formicrochip production (by the way the most successful Carl Zeiss division today, a spin-off from the camera lens division) could not have been achieved without proprietary metrology to ensure ultra-precise optical surfaces.
Recently Carl Zeiss has taken another step towards future lens element surfaces of even higher smoothness: A new measuring system has been developed at Carl Zeiss that can detect deviations from the ideal surfaces smaller than half the diameter of a single atom! This is the world record in the industry today.
Admittedly the new system will not be implemented in the manufacturing of camera lenses, as long as their price has to remain clearly below the price region of Carl Zeiss Starlith® microchip lenses, which sell for approximately 1.5 million DM per unit. | |
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