Automation for mass production of high performance optics

该项目将设计和验证新的自动化制造技术，从而实现高端（高性能）光学器件的有效大规模生产。该项目将实现新的英国设计和建造的自动化制造技术，适用于国防和商业光学领域。今天，生产高端光学产品的领先公司使用非常精确的机器，这些机器是手动加载/卸载的，并且需要手动操作的单独的后期检查。该项目将开发和验证适用于精密光学工件的新的自动化方法，并集成新的原位测量技术，以提高生产率和良率。该项目将推进先前研究委员会资助项目的研究成果（该项目创造了一个高度新颖的紧凑型机器概念），并将适用于红外和可见光光学的装载/卸载和原位测量的新自动化技术应用于该概念。这种类型的自动化以前没有应用过。如今，对小尺寸光学器件的需求很普遍，生产批量也在不断增加。这两个因素提高了自动化的重要性。值得注意的是，加载/卸载时间在光学生产的整体周期时间中所占的比例越来越大。该项目的合作伙伴包括英国领先的光学系统制造商和英国领先的精密工程研究所的一家分拆公司。

This project will devise and verify new automated manufacturing technologies that will enable effective mass production of high-end (high performance) optics. The project will realise new UK-designed and built automated manufacturing technologies appropriate for defence and commerial sector optics. Today, leading companies producing high-end optics employ very precise machines which are manually loaded/unloaded and have separate post-production inspection requiring manual operation. This project will develop and verify new automation methods that are functional for delicate optical workpieces and integrate a new in-situ measurement technique that can improve production rate and yield. The project will advance research outputs of a previous research council funded project (which created a highly novel compact machine concept) and apply to that concept new automation techniques for loading/unloading and in-situ measurement appropriate for both infrared and visible optics. This type of automation has previously not been applied. Today, demand for reduced size optics is common, and production batch sizes are increasing. These two factors raise the importance of automation. Significantly, the load/unload times are becoming a greater % of overall cycle times in optics production. The project partners include the UK's leading optical systems manufacturer and a spin-out company from the UK's leading Precision Engineering research institute.