Design
Specializing in Optomechanical Engineering Services
Product Design
At Exact Engineering we use Solidworks and PTC Creo CAD software, the industry standard for mechanical computer aided design software.
Exact Engineering designs, develops and fabricates a diverse range of product including products within the renewable energy, marine, robotics and food dispensing sectors. Please see the projects page for examples of work we have completed in the various disciplines within mechanical engineering.
Optomechanical Engineering Expertise
Optomechanical engineering is a niche field of engineering involving the design of mechanical components, structures and mechanisms specifically for optical systems. These components are designed to hold and constrain the optical elements without adversely impacting their performance. Optomechanical systems often require mounting of refractive and reflective optics and mechanisms to an “optical bench” structure which maintains the precise alignment of the optical elements. Some systems are comprised entirely of “fixed” optical elements while others require precision motion such as for a focusing mechanism or a multi-axis gimbaled mirror.
Paramount to the performance of an optomechanical system is a stable, athermal metering structure designed to maintain alignment of optical components despite environmental impacts such as temperature and vibration. Designing to tolerances of microns and microradians is necessary for precision optomechanical engineering, and at Exact Engineering, such precision is our passion.
Optomechanical Capabilities
Examples of our optomechanical design and analysis capabilities include:
Kinematic mounts
Bonded and athermalized optic mounts
Mechanical “zero” distortion mounts
Precision guided optics
Single and multi-element lens barrels and mounts
Multi-axis adjustable mounts(tip/tilt roll/yaw etc)
Athermalized optical benches and metering structures
Optical alignment/assembly tooling and fixturing
Optical surface stress and distortion analysis
Zernike polynomial surface fits for residual RMS and P-V of stressed optics
Precision Motion Systems
When precision movement is required, we prefer to use flexure based systems over bearing-guided systems when possible. Flexures provide frictionless, stictionless motion with infinite life. Some examples of motion systems we have designed are 3-axis gimbals, linear focus mechanisms, and scan mirrors.
Optical Engineering
Exact Engineering can provide optical engineering design and analysis or work with existing optical designs. Examples of our design and engineering capabilities include:
Optical engineering of reflective and refractive systems
Athermalized optical system design
Import of existing optical engineering data files into SolidWorks
