BARRINGTON, NJ-Edmund Optics Inc. has received $2.8 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop manufacturing equipment to produce advanced optical elements such as aspheres. An asphere is a lens with at least one nonspherical surface. Aspheres can be used to reduce the number of components in an optical system, cutting down on materials and manufacturing costs.

The program will focus on creating low-cost tooling methods critical for low- to mid-volume lens production runs. Specific applications include asphere use in precision night vision and fire control systems.

"Cost effective implementation of asphere technology has become a major obstacle to increasing performance and reducing weight in a wide variety of [Department of Defense] programs," says Edmund Optics president, John Stack. "The grant will go a long way to solving some long-standing technical and manufacturing hurdles."