Optical comparators have been used for more than 50 years and remain a versatile and cost-effective technology for monitoring the processes and quality of a broad range of manufactured parts. Originating from static overhead projectors that displayed magnified images of screw threads onto a wall for manual measurement, optical comparators have evolved into full-featured machines […]

To sustain the growth of technology, the use of lenses and optical imaging for manufacturing has been standard on the factory floor for more than 60 years. Early on, manufacturers of close tolerance products depended on a highly skilled technician to acquire non contact magnified images and take simple measurements. Those applications were analog, the […]

The comparator was built in order to make very precise measurements on very large photographic plates or rolls of film. In particular, it was used by NRAO for many years for finding coordinates of objects on the Palomar Sky Survey plates for possible optical matches to what the radio astronomers had found in the same […]

For hundreds of years, the basic structure of the microscope has remained pretty much the same. However, constant improvement has added functionality. Experts noted the most recent improvements in microscope technology. The biggest improvement in microscopes is the change from fixed tube length to infinity-corrected optics. In the past, microscopes had a fixed optical length […]

People try to substitute the measuring microscope with vision systems, but when you need advanced optical techniques, there is no other tool that you can select. Different an optical comparator or video system, a microscope can offer several ways of looking at an object to highlight specific features. By using specialized lenses or manipulating the […]

A typical anatomy of a microscope consists of a tube extending down toward a flat plane called the stage and up toward the eyepiece, through which the user views an object. At the distant end of the tube is a turret of objective lenses. Another lens near the eyepiece further magnifies the image, so that […]