Knight Optical Your First-Choice Optical Component Supplier?
As a world-renowned supplier of scientific optical components, Knight Optical prides itself on its premium-quality products and unparalleled level of service. With over 30 years’ experience within the engineering and manufacturing sector, we have worked closely with customers across a multitude of sub-industries, including aerospace, defence, and medical sectors, to name but a few. Not only do we place quality at the heart of everything that we do, but we also offer competitiveness and prompt delivery, with a dedicated account manager who will work alongside you every step of the way. With the capabilities to work on one-off, small research projects through to large-scale productions, it is no wonder Knight Optical is a global leader in the supply of optical components.
Here at Knight Optical, we primarily work with customers on bespoke orders that are manufactured to individual specifications. When opting for our custom-made optical components, our sales team and metrology technicians will liaise closely with you to ensure that you’re provided with optics that are on-spec and, ultimately, fit for their purpose.
Our wide-ranging portfolio varies from simple Optical Windows – manufactured from standard glass, such as BK7 (or equivalent) or Borosilicate – to more complex optics, such as Germanium Aspheric Lenses with Anti-Reflective (AR) and Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) coatings to enhance their performance.
Below are typical optical components that we provide:
| Windows | Standard, Precision Grade and Dome Windows |
| Lenses | Spherical, Aspherical, Cylindrical, Fresnel, Ball & Half Ball. |
| Filters | Interference Bandpass, Dichroic, IR Cut, Heat Control, Wratten, Neutral Density. |
| Polarisers | Waveplates – including Zero- and Low-Order Quartz Retarders, Mica Retarders, Circular and Linear Polarisers |
| Prisms | Amici, Corner Cube, Dove, Equilateral, Pellin-Broca, Penta, Porro, Rhomboid, Right-Angled and Infrared ATR Prisms. |
| Beamsplitters | Plate and Cube, Polarising and Non-Polarising types |
| Mirrors | Plane, Concave Lamp Reflectors, Concave and Elliptical |
| Optical Flats | Low thermal expansion Zerodur® and Fused Quartz |
| Gratings, Graticules and Resolution Charts | Eyepiece and Stage Graticules, Bar Gratings, Ruled and Holographic Diffraction Gratings, USAF 1951 0-7, NBS 1963A and Cobb (BS 1613) Charts for resolution testing |
| Optomechanical Components | Apertures, Iris Diaphragms, Mini Spectrometers, Monochromatic Light Units and Vacuum Pickup Systems. |
Whether your application operates in the ultraviolet (UV), visible or infrared (IR) spectrum, Knight Optical can help. To perform at specific wavelengths, specialist materials and/or coatings need to be used, and we have a wealth of knowledge in this area. From UV materials – such as Calcium Fluoride, UV Fused Silica and Quartz – to IR substrates – for example, Germanium, Silicon and Zinc Selenide – we can provide you with every type of optical component.
Coatings play a vital role in enhancing the performance of an optical component. AR coatings, for instance, can increase the transmission over a specific range, and DLC or Hydrophobic coatings can increase the durability of a surface. Our technical sales team can help advise as to which coatings are suited for your application.
As well as custom-made solutions, Knight Optical also holds a vast stock catalogue of optical components of over 3000 items, which are ready to order for next-day dispatch with worldwide shipping. These stock components – including Windows, Lenses and Filters – can be ordered directly from our website and have all been tested in our in-house Metrology Laboratory to ensure they conform to their specifications. For a quick turnaround customisable order, we also edge down several stock items to meet specific requirements.
As well as a wealth of technical expertise, Knight Optical also has a dedicated state-of-the-art Metrology Laboratory, where our optics are tested before shipment.
Our instruments include:
- A Zygo Verifire Interferometer for surface figure, radii and wavefront measurements
- Agilent Cary Spectrophotometers – including an FTIR for measurements up to 44µm and a universal measuring accessory that allows us to measure transmission and reflection at different angles of incidence and polarisations
- A Starrett AV300 coordinate measuring machine for non-contact dimensional measurements.
You can find more about our metrology laboratory video here.
For more information click here
Once our optical components have been tested against their specifications, they are 100% visually inspected by our quality assurance department. The team here are trained to inspect optics to ISO 10110 and MIL-0-13830A and can check down to 10/5 scratch/dig, which is particularly critical in laser applications.
What’s more, we have a UKAS-accredited quality management system in place. Working to ISO 9001:2015, we are subjected to annual assessments to ensure that we are compliant, giving our customers the confidence that we have correct processes and procedures in place. By implementing essential procedures – including internal audits, corrective/preventive action, and management reviews – we are confident that alongside working to a management system, we are continuously looking to improve and better ourselves for our customers. As a company, we want to guarantee that we are actively improving our environmental footprint. Therefore, as well as ISO 9001:2015 accreditation, we also have ISO 14001:2015 UKAS certification.
For more information on Knight Optical or to find out more about our custom-made and stock optical component offering, please get in touch using the following contact details:
www.knightoptical.com
Europe, UK, Asia & RoW: info@knightoptical.co.uk +44 (0)1622 859444
USA & Canada: usasales@knightoptical.com +1 401-583-7846
