Contrast designed, built, aligned, and fielded a custom lens mount for use in demanding environmental conditions. The lens system we designed had to adapt to a legacy camera system, which was no longer in production. First, we had to reverse-engineer the legacy camera lens, and then we designed the wide-field adapter lens to work perfectly with this legacy optical system.

Our custom wide-field lens adapter was required to work (providing diffraction-limited imaging) when immersed in either air or water. The system had to survive in an underwater marine environment to a depth of 100ft, and it had to be removable/replaceable by a user wearing Mission Oriented Protective Posture Class IV (MOPP-4) gloves. When in place on the optical system, our lens mount had to be rugged enough to withstand a very rigorous shock/vibration profile.

Contrast designed a custom lens mount that sealed the optical elements together, allowed air/water to flow between the lens adapter and legacy system, and provided a secure lock onto the legacy system without requiring any tools for removal or replacement.

The Contrast lens mount was designed using just three main parts: two made of stainless steel, and the outer grip ring made of black nylon. One stainless piece precisely held the lens elements in place using high-strength epoxy, and the other stainless piece was machined using Wire Elelctrical Discharge Machining (EDM) to create 20 steel-spring "fingers", which securely grip onto the legacy system. Sliding the nylon grip ring fore and aft just a few millimeters unlocks or locks the system in place

The photo above shows the final product that met all the specifications and passed all the required tests for operation and fieldability. For this particular design, simplicity was the key to providing a successful and functional product.

SUMMARY

We designed a custom lens and custom lens mount for a legacy optical system to be used in a very demanding environment. Contact us to learn more about how Contrast Optical can solve your optical design and opto-mechanical design problems.