From optical design to moulding: a one-stop shop for turnkey optics

Optical design

Thanks to our opticians’ know-how and to our powerful Simoptic ™ optical simulation software, a personalized lens can be designed and simulated to show its performance before manufacturing. Confidence in our designs and extensive knowledge of the constraints of tooling manufacturing and optical components molding allow us to guarantee future photometry from the design phase. Constraints include machining radii, molding radii, draft angles, machining finishes, sink mark risks, mechanical elements and location and dimensions of injection thresholds related to injection parameters. All of these elements have a significant impact on the photometry of optics and failure to give them proper consideration often results in discrepancies between simulation results and real parts.

Our expertise and know-how instill confidence in our customers and allow them to create, personalize and validate their future optical component very early in the project.

Obviously, we are able to design lenses adapted to the various norms and standards of the fields in which our customers market products.

Prototypes

There are a multitude of prototyping technologies, but few allow the optical design to be validated, as this will ultimately be done with production tools.

For a few thousand dollars, DBM offers an optical prototype service, which makes it possible to obtain identical samples in terms of process and materials for future production parts 99% of the time. This allows photometric validation tests to be launched more quickly and, if necessary, certification tests to be submitted to authorized bodies (UL, Intertech) even before production tools are manufactured.

This service also makes it possible to launch pre-productions because several thousand production-quality samples can be made before investing in a mass production tool.

Manufacturing of molds and production inserts

Molding technologies have evolved over the years, as has DBM Optix, the group’s molding division. DBM’s expertise in mold design ensures that our custom lenses will function as expected according to our initial optical study.

We have the capacity to manufacture in-house molds and complex optical inserts. We have state-of-the-art machine tools and software:

All these tools allow us to carry out complex optical geometries with the surface finishes desired by the optician.

molding of optical components

This is another area where great expertise is required to achieve the desired result. An excellent optical design or a perfectly made mold is not always enough to obtain the desired outcome.

Over the years DBM has developed its optical molding knowledge. Multi-layer, multi-colour injection, thick lenses, light guide, optical silicone, compression injection, variotherm, laser cutting of gates, camera-assisted visual parts inspection, pad printing: with more than 35 injection machines ranging from 100T to 650T, we can meet a very wide range of our customers’ needs.

Conclusion

We evolved into a “one-stop shop” not only because it is the best solution for our customers’ success, but also as a way to build on our decades of experience in manufacturing complex optical components.