TRUSTED OPTICAL ENGINEERING COMPANY FOR SPECIALTY OPTICS

What’s the first link in the machine vision chain? Lighting and optics. We offer engineering services tailored to your needs:


  • Front end design (image acquisition)
  • Lighting design for machine vision, gauging, bioassay
  • Optical consulting
  • Gauging application consulting


It doesn't matter how good your hardware and software is if you can't get a good image in the first place. In their paper Machine Vision: Proverbs, Principles. Prejudices & Priorities, Bruce Batchelor and Paul Whelan state:


"...no part of a vision system should be made more complicated because a sloppy attitude has been adopted during the design of other parts. A particularly common error is the tendency to concentrate on the image processing, to the detriment of the image acquisition."


Maybe it's the Front End


Light Works recognizes this problem and offers our expertise in optics and lighting to machine vision OEMs, systems integrators and end users.


We have the experience and proven track record of designing complex optical systems for machine vision and sensors used in industries as diverse as glass, plastics, automotive, pharmaceutical, food, data storage, electronics and packaging.


With over twenty-five years' experience going from design, to lab bench, to fabrication and installation, we know what it takes to make machine vision work in the real world.


Don’t throw away another $10K or $100K trying to solve your imaging problems with hardware and software when the real cause might be at the "front-end."


Call Light Works and let us help you focus on the solution!


Frequently Asked Questions

  • 1. What types of optical systems can your engineering services design and develop?

    By far our greatest expertise and experience as an optical engineering company is in designing optical systems for machine vision or automated inspection systems. Of course we know lenses, but we also know lighting, filters, polarization, contrast enhancement, and how to mesh well with other disciplines such as electronics, mechanicals, and software.


    Beyond this, however, we're also expert in many conventional optical principles. We've done engineering work and studies on general optics and lighting systems for many companies, as well as for NASA and the U.S. Navy.


  • 2. What is the typical process for engaging with your optical engineering services?

    It all starts with an email or a phone call! Of course it helps to have as much information about the application to begin with so we can more quickly understand your needs. An optical engineering company will typically want to know several things as follows. These especially apply to machine vision applications: 


    i) What are you looking at or imaging?

    ii) What are you trying to achieve? Gauging? Defect detection? Pattern matching?

    iii) What camera will you be using?

    iv) How is the part being handled? Conveyor, rotary dial, other?

    v) Will the part be moving or stationary during inspection?

    vi) Inpsection rate? Parts per minute? Speed of a belt or web being inspected?

    vii) What's the environment like? Cleanliness? Temperature? Adjacent lighting? Clean room or washdown?

    viii) How much space is there around the inspection area?


    A simple sketch of the desired result, even hand-drawn, can be very useful to the optical engineering company!


  • 3. Why is front-end design and lighting so critical in optical engineering projects?

    Like almost every engineering project, the old saying Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) applies! In optical engineering for machine vision this is especially true. At the most basic level, if the lighting and optics don't produce an image that contains the needed information, no amount of work from other disciplines will fix the problem.


    More subtly, poorly designed lighting and optics may produce an image that contains the information, but the contrast may be so low, or other noise (non-important features, unwanted lighting, shadowed areas, etc.) may limit detectability. Effort from other disciplines, especially software, may require hundreds of hours of work to try to filter or process the image for limited usablitiy. Well-designed lighting and optics, however, can strongly highlight the target features, thus making the software job easier, and the entire system more robust. 


  • 4. Does LW4U provide custom optical design solutions or only standard services?

    Of course this is a planted question, but one that still deserves an answer: Yes, Light Works optical engineering specializes in custom optical design solutions. It really is our bread and butter. And if your problem isn't one we can efficiently and economically tackle, we're always happy to suggest other providers.