Eldim

ELDIM, MRF^® & SSI^®: A powerful combination

French company ELDIM is a manufacturer of cooled digital cameras, video photometers, colorimeters, and inspection systems.

Although an important part of their 15 person optical shop is devoted to meeting internal needs, ELDIM does also accept contract work from other companies. Specific revenue for the optical department is around 1.5 M€. Following a mantra of  “from prototype to medium series, high precision optics for our customer’s satisfaction” ELDIM’s optical group realized a 25% increase in revenue over the previous year.

ELDIM: Founded 1991, 50 employees today MANTRA: “Process flexibility and collaboration with our customers allows us to guarantee manufacturability, lead times and accuracy, just from blueprints” MRF/SSI IMPACT: “Reduced lead times, increased accuracy, repeatability, reliability. Using QED equipment to leverage our other tools gives us a clear competitive advantage.” MRF/SSI TECHNOLOGY: Q22-X owner since 2003, SSI owner since 2004 GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT: Our business is based on a new paradigm. QED products enable us to gain months in product development. We now know if a product can be manufactured, how long it will take and the cost. Predictable optics are now a key feature of Eldim product development.

ELDIM uses the Q22-X magnetorheological finishing (MRF) system from QED Technologies. ELDIM finishes spherical, aspherical and plano optics to better than Lambda/20 in minutes..

ELDIM is dedicated to providing optical parts that meet customer specification, to extremely high precision. ELDIM enjoys working in partnership with their customers, often working together to create specific process suggestions or design modifications in order to increase the manufacturability and accuracy of their lenses.

For internal needs, ELDIM manufactures optics in the visible range in all forms but cylinders and free-forms. For customers, ELDIM’s core business is focused on manufacturing spheres, aspheres and windows up to 150-200mm diameter, in both visible and IR ranges; proprietary processes have led to the development of an impressive capability for processing silicon, germanium or ZNS windows. ELDIM also  manufactures square and spherical lenses up to 800mm.

ELDIM purchased a Q22-X in 2003 and an SSI in 2004. Both systems were primarily intended to improve their manufacturing of spherical and aspherical lenses for in-house products. With the Q22-X and the SSI in place, ELDIM now has a complete processing chain including spherical and aspherical grinding (SCHNEIDER OPTICS ALG200 and SLG121),  polishing, and metrology. The value of the Q22-X and the SSI soon became clear and ELDIM now uses the QED equipment in order to reduce time in all types of polishing processes as well as providing their customers with a reliable and deterministic solution for extreme accuracy.

ELDIM made their initial MRF purchase because they were convinced that the Q22-X provided the best available solution for asphere polishing. Aspheres were the key component of their plan to develop a whole new product range and QED was indeed a key figure in ELDIM’s product success. For external customers, the Q22-X provided a clear competitive advantage, allowing for more accurate lenses and windows. This advantage was compounded when the power of the Q22 was combined with the capability of the SSI; and later, ELDIM was able to leverage the capability of other manufacturing tools by allowing the final polishing steps to be carried out using QED systems.

Overall, ELDIM has been very impressed with the QED equipment. The first parts came off the machines very easily, and they were able to use the machine immediately. Now with over 5 years of experience on QED products, ELDIM is able to guarantee manufacturability - from common to the most accurate parts - from blueprints.

The Q22-X and the SSI have enabled ELDIM to gain months for each new product development by knowing at a very early stage if a product can be manufactured, how long it will take and how much it will cost. This was only possible because of the new paradigm enabled by QED products. Predictable optics are now a key feature to ELDIM product development and their optical parts business is now focused on QED solutions.

For more information about ELDIM, please visit their website at www.eldim.fr

Download a PDF file of the ELDIM ad from the June / July 2008 Issue of EuroPhotonics.