Custom Glass Components
Coresix Precision Glass has the variety of processes and depth of experience to make your vision reality. A creative and experienced engineering staff makes use of advanced process capabilities to design a solution to the most challenging needs. From in-house tooling to process design to full production, let us help with your custom glass requirements.
PROCESS
Substrate
Though we can achieve almost any format from standard sheet glass, custom components often require specialty glass materials like Fused Silica, BK7, and other Optical Glass. These materials can take the form of Blocks, Pressings, Cores, or Plates and require additional steps to create a suitable substrate for further processing. At Coresix, we have the tools and experience to convert any format of raw material into a finished component of your specifications.
Cutting
For standard sheet glass materials, Coresix has a range of Precision Mechanical Scribe tables to meet most size requirements. Bulk materials are converted to appropriate blanks and, if necessary, can be further cut using the scribe process or Water Jet for intricate shapes. Often, processing (including lapping, polishing, optical coating, etc.) is more cost-effectively performed on a larger part, which can then be cut and formed to the final dimensions.
Edging
Though CNC Edging is available within certain size limits, a more cost-effective approach for small parts is to Hand Seam edges and corners on a diamond grinding wheel. This is a very consistent process that eliminated the sharp edge and corners making the parts safe to handle and promoting cleanliness through reduced particle migration.
Lapping
Custom components will often require custom thickness or other characteristics (flatness, parallelism, etc) not available in standard material formats. Coresix maintains a variety of Single-Side Lapping and Double-Side Lapping processes with sufficient capacity to produce parts to your unique specifications in any quantities.
Polishing
Once lapped to thickness (and other requirements), whether as a substrate or in finished format, the surface and subsurface damage must be removed to bring the glass back to a clear state. We have an array of Double-Side Polishing processes to create surfaces from optically clear to ultra-low defects. We also offer Super Polish to achieve a smooth surface as low as 2A RMS.
Cleaning
Our in-house tooling department can create custom carriers to enable Ultrasonic Cleaning of nearly any format parts up to 500mm square. We have multiple cleaning lines feeding directly into a Class 100 Optical Clean Room, where parts can be inspected under the most stringent conditions and packed to maintain cleanliness all the way to your door.
Inspection
Within our Class 100 Optical Clean Room, our most advanced inspection practices can be applied to nearly any part format. While metrology (Thickness, Parallelism, Flatness, Roughness, etc.) is often performed at the substrate level, a variety of lighting conditions are employed to inspect each part visually, assuring surface quality and cleanliness requirements are met 100% of the time.
