TPi October 2009

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developmentsproducts &
October 2009 Tube Products International 27
A partner for exacting surface finish requirements
Glass rods for mass production
SCHOTT is an international technology
group that develops special materials,
components and systems. The
company’s main areas of focus are the
household appliances industry, pharma-
ceuticals, solar energy, electronics,
optics and the automotive industry.
The company supplies fire-polished
glass rods, made of specialised
glass, that can be less than 1mm in
thickness and up to 1,000mm long,
for efficient manufacturing of small
lenses. By offering low Tg glasses and
optical materials in new shapes, Schott
supports miniaturisation in optical
applications.
In addition, developments aimed at
being able to provide conical rods,
prisms, tubes and right angle designs,
as well as standardised round rods, are
already underway.
The products that are now being
offered include rods made of optical
glasses, such as LASF 35, which has
an extremely high index of refraction
(nd=2.02204; vd=29.06), as well as low
Tg glasses that are suited to precision
moulding processes. Other glasses are
available upon request.
The length of the rods enables higher
yields, while the smaller diameter
results in less loss of material during
manufacturing of smaller components.
Schott states that the fire-polished
surface of the rod is suitable for a
variety of applications, and the new
dimensions of the rod ensure easy
processing and reduced processing
time.
Schott has also expanded its portfolio
of low Tg glasses that have low
transformation temperatures. These can
be precisely shaped at temperatures
of below 550°C and thus enable mass
production of extremely small optical
components in an efficient manner.
In addition to the established P
and N glasses, the following glass
types now successfully qualify for
use in precision moulding: N-KZFS2,
N-KZFS4, N-KZFS5, N-KZFS8,
N-LAF33, N-LASF46B and SF57. The
glass type N-LASF46A has also been
further developed. The N-LASF46B
type (nd = 1.90366; vd = 31.32) is
available with improved transmission
inside the blue spectral range.
The listed glass types N-KZFS4,
N-KZFS5 and N-KZFS8 belong to the
special short flint glasses that Schott
offers, which are mainly characterised
by a profound deviation of the partial
dispertion from the normal line. They
feature high transmission within the
blue-violet spectral range combined
with a low fluorescence at an excitation
wavelength of 365nm.
Schott AG – Germany
•
DESIGN Factory works in cooperation
with architects, designers and cus-
tomers, to provide polishing/finishing
services for stainless steel. In addition
to mirror-polished sheets, Design
Factory processes a large number
of tube forms in industry polished,
super mirror polished (No 8) and high-
gloss/super mirror polished – YQ
(yacht quality). The tubes are not just
finely ground, but for the purpose of
decoration, automatically finished to
the super mirror polish.
The company is large enough to
provide the necessary security for large
projects, yet flexible enough to adjust
to individual customer circumstances.
Design Factory can process tubes
from 600 to 6,300mm in length.
For round tubes, outside diameters
range from 6 to 800mm; for square,
rectangular, oval, elliptical and other
tubes, from 10x10 to 800x800mm.
Wall thicknesses range from 0.8 to
20mm, and the maximum component
weight is 800kg.
Design Factory GmbH – Germany
Long rods made of optical glass S S
Design Factory provides polishing services for stainless steel tubes S S