Example of optical system evaluation: Laser line generator lens

Increase in man-hours due to acceptance inspection for lens units

Generally, sensor manufacturers procure optical lenses and lens units from lens manufacturers, integrate them into their products, and then sells them. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of cases where sensors with different specifications are required for each end-user’s factory line, and the product lineup has been increasing significantly.

In addition, in order to improve the cycle time of production lines, higher performance and more complex optical systems are required, and the man-hours and time required to evaluate the performance of products are increasing proportionally.

One particular issue that arises in this situation is that when a product evaluation is conducted within the customer’s company and a failure is found on a particular product, it is difficult to determine the cause of the problem and a great deal of time is required.

Even if the lens manufacturer delivers a lens of reliable quality for performance evaluation of the delivered lens alone, when assembled as a lens unit, it is another matter whether the optical system will work correctly when incorporated into the customer’s product. It is impossible to evaluate whether the final optical system unit has any problems or not without considering various conditions such as the work to be detected, the light source to be used, and the environment in which the sensor will be used. In many cases, assembly plants do not have sufficient facilities for evaluating optical systems, and in such cases, inquiries and evaluation requests must be made to lens manufacturers on a case-by-case basis.

As the number of products increases and product performance becomes more and more high-spec, it is taking too much time to find out where the problem lies and what specific parts should be reviewed if the problem is within the optical system. This is an urgent quality evaluation issue for some sensor manufacturers.

TOYOTEC’s mission is to assist in the evaluation of the final product.

TOYOTEC is working on this issue to a level that ordinary lens manufacturers are not willing to go to. The above is an example of a special evaluation machine TOYOTEC manufactured for a customer’s individual optical system quality evaluation issue. TOYOTEC manufactured the evaluation machine according to the target workpiece and operating environment of the sensor.

In some cases, these custom-made evaluation machines are delivered to the customer’s factory for quality assurance, while in other cases, they are used internally by TOYOTEC to evaluate lens units (even to OEM products in some cases).

As a lens manufacturer, it is of course our job to produce lenses and lens units that meet customer specifications, but we also believe that our job is to guarantee the optical system of the “customer’s final product”.

Please feel free to contact TOYOTEC if you are experiencing quality assurance issues with your optical systems.

>> Click here for information on the results of evaluation machines.

The post Case Studies : Reducing customer man-hours by evaluating optical lens units on behalf of the customer appeared first on Toyotec Solutions.

In this case study, we will explain the added value and services that TOYOTEC can provide to our customers.

Challenges in “Arrangement, Procurement, and Assembly” for a manufacturer of optical-unit-embedded products

Recently, Toyotec has been consulted by a global manufacturer of commercial equipment, and the theme of our service is “integrated production support”.
In this article, we will focus on this “integrated production” and explain the benefits to customers and the value that TOYOTEC can provide.

Suppliers spread across multiple plants, complicating management, assembly costs and lead times

The customer faced an issue on the impact of the “dispersion of suppliers” to various areas.

Suppliers and factories has spread out throughout the Asian region, with TOYOTEC producing the lenses, Company A in Vietnam producing the product housings, Company B in Japan producing the optical sensors, Company C in Korea producing the machined parts, and the assembly plant in China.
In particular, when irregularities occurred, such as the release of a new model or the sudden receipt of an order from the head office to increase production of a particular model, the procurement staff were forced to use all kinds of means, such as e-mail, fax, and telephone; and production deadlines were rapidly increasing.

The impact of the problem was noticeable during production launch of a new model, when there were many parts whose production quality had not yet been stabilized, and the amount of work involved in returning defective products to the production plant, requesting additional production, adjusting delivery dates, etc… They were extremely confusing and interfered with normal operations.

The customer was looking for a new company that could handle all the procurement-related work, but could not find one that could handle the arrangements, procurement, and communication with satisfactory quality, so the manufacturer’s procurement staff had no choice but to take on this work.

90% reduction in man-hours, thanks to TOYOTEC’s integrated production proposal.

TOYOTEC’s sales staff already had an idea of how difficult it was to make arrangements and give assembly instructions from each supplier. One day, we had an opportunity to actually hear about the difficulty of the work through communication with the person in charge of procurement. We suggested that TOYOTEC could provide integrated production services. 

TOYOTEC has production and assembly plants in China and other parts of the world, and also has a wealth of experience in OEM and other in-house production. In the past, TOYOTEC has produced complete sets of lenses for consumer SLR cameras, and has a long track record in parts arrangement and assembly.
We also have an assembly plant skilled in performance evaluation and quality correction, as it is impossible to evaluate the quality of a lens until the unit is assembled.

Therefore, we have decided to use our production technology to carry out some of the production at our customer’s plants in China at TOYOTEC’s China plant. As a result, the number of man-hours required by the person in charge was naturally reduced, and both yield and lead time improved, leading to the person in charge receiving an award from the head office for the improvement.

Today, TOYOTEC’s assembly deliveries have increased more than tenfold, and the staff in charge is able to devote more time to the procurement of new and important models that requires more energy and man-hours. According to the staff member in charge, the man-hours required for the normal flow of products has been reduced to about one-tenth of what it was at one time, and he still thanks us every time we meet.

If you are concerned about the high man-hours required for procurement and arrangement, please contact TOYOTEC.

About TOYOTEC’s OEM/ODM production

https://optical-tech-group.toyotec.com/en/enginneringservices/odm-oem/

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What is Optical Design?

“Optical design” refers to the design of an entire optical system by combining lenses, mirrors, and other components. Most of the design is about the lens itself, but since it also includes the design of reflectors and prisms, the term is often referred as “optical design” instead of “lens design”.

There are two stages in the optical design process: the specification design stage (defining the requirements) , where the specifications of the optical system itself are considered and set, depending on what functions and performances are required, and the detailed design stage, where the materials and shapes are specified based on the specifications.

In the specification design stage, the required specifications for the functional unit is converted/allocated to the specifications of the individual functional components such as the optical system and the photosensor. The individual specifications will be designed to meet the required specifications of the original functional unit when they are combined. The optical system has unique specification items such as focal length and f-number, and requires optical expertise.

In the detailed design stage, the number of lenses, other optical components such as mirrors, the shape and thickness of the surfaces, and the placement of each component are optimized based on the optical specifications. At the same time, the workability of the optical components and the method of holding and fixing them are also taken into consideration as we proceed with the design.

As you can see from the explanation above, optical design is a high-level design that requires not only knowledge of optics and design skills, but also a wide range of knowledge regarding elemental components such as photodetectors and light sources, materials, processing methods, and mechanical design. Japanese Optical Design has made great technological breakthroughs along with the rise of the camera industry after World War II, and based on this technology, it has been applied to various fields to reach the highest level in the world.

Various Optical Designs

Optical systems are functional components that control light, and can be classified into two main types. One is imaging optics, and the other is illumination and condensing optics. The two types have different indexes and methods. Imaging optics, as it literally means, has the function of imaging the light coming from an object onto a photodetector.

The photodetector is often a solid-state image sensor consisting of many pixels, like the image sensor of a digital camera, but it can also be the human eye(retina), as in a telescope. Design indexes include image sharpness, contrast, and distortion.

On the other hand, lighting and condensing optics are required to properly project light emitted from a light source onto an object, such as room lighting or stage spotlights. Distribution of illuminance, uniformity and condensing ability will be the indexes for these kind of optics. In some cases, condensing optics are used together with light receivers, such as parabolic mirrors for solar light condensation.

As you can see, there are two main types of optical design, but if you classify by the application of the optical system, there are many different types of optical design. The following is only a part of the different types for each application.

Optical Design:

● for object imaging (digital cameras, smartphones, etc.)
● for object recognition (OCR, security, etc.)
● for distance measurement (LiDAR, etc.)
● for the projection (projectors, steppers, etc.)
● for uniform illumination (desk light, etc.)
● for ophthalmoscopy (loupe, glasses, microscope, telescope, binoculars, etc.)
● for energy focusing (sunlight focusing, laser processing machines,
● medical equipment, etc.)

Optical design differs for these applications. For example, optical design for object imaging and for object recognition sounds similar, but while the former is the design of an optical system that can capture various objects in various lighting environments and distances, the latter is the design of a high quality
optical system for a specific object in a specific lighting environment and distance.

Even if the application and purpose are the same, the optical design required for each product is different. For example, loupes and microscopes are the same in that they are used to magnify and observe small objects with the human eye, but the magnification rate and application scene are very different, and the required performance, size, price, and other aspects of optical design are also very different.

The Elements of Optical Design

Optical design handles a variety of components depending on the purpose.
For example, the following are some of the components.

● Lens Material: Plastic, glass, and infrared-transparent material, etc.
● Optical Elements: lenses, mirrors, prisms, diffraction gratings, etc.
● Coatings: metal mirrors, multilayer filters, etc.
● Light source: Halogen lamp, LED, laser, etc.
● Photodetectors: Image sensors(CMOS,CCD), etc.

By properly handling these elements, a variety of optical designs can be made.

TOYOTEC, the operator of Optical Design Technology Navigator, provides support in terms of both optimal optical design and high-precision manufacturing technology in accordance with the customer’s operating environment and requirements.

Optical Design Methods

TOYOTEC uses a software dedicated in optical design. This software is equipped with a function to track light rays passing through a lens or mirror surface by applying Snell’s law. By tracking a large number of rays, it is possible to evaluate the state of image formation and condensation.

We proceed with the design using functions to control the shape of the lens and mirror surface and the thickness of the lens targeting this evaluation detail. Of course, it goes without saying that the knowledge of optics and skill for the software are necessary to properly execute the optical design.

TOYOTEC, which operates Optical Design Technology Navigator, uses Zemax and Code V software for optical design.

Optical Design Applications

Your daily life is filled with products that use a variety of optical designs. For example, smartphone cameras, which many of us carry around with us, are a typical example of a product that uses optical design to highly optimize all specifications such as thinness, weight, performance, and price. Optical design technology is also used in many other areas of our daily lives, such as eyeglasses, cameras, security cameras, copy machines, automated driving, and medical equipment.

In the industrial field, optical design is used in public transportation, warehouses, sensors, electron microscopes. It is even used in the space field,
contributing to the further development of science and technology. In addition, we are in the midst of advanced technological advances such as 5G and CASE, and the need for optical sensors and optical systems is expected to increase further in the future.

Optical Design Technology Navigator will solve all your optical design needs!

TOYOTEC, operator of the Optical Design Technology Navigator, is an all-around optical manufacturer with proficiency in optical, mechanical, and electronical technology. We ca design and develop products from scratch based on our customers’ needs, and provides integrated support from design to productization.

If you are thinking about something like, “If only there was a product like this…”, or, “Is it possible to do these kind of things with lenses?”, Optical Design Technology Navigator, a website operated by a group of optical design professionals, is the place to go. If you have any questions about optical design, please feel free to contact us at Optical Design Technology Navigator.

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