Optics Standards
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Today there are thousands of national and international standards available to us to specify
and manufacture optics. If you know what you are looking for, just click on the icon on the left
for the appropriate standards agency and your browser will spawn a new session where you
can buy and download the applicable US and International Standards. NSSN is a handy tool
to help you find standards applicable to your business.
Click on the link below to see my lists of some of the key ISO, MIL, and ANSI/ASME standards
that matter to optics. If you work in the field and aren't familiar with all of these, you probably
should be.
Savvy about Standards
At Savvy Optics, we specialize in National and International standards for optics. With experts
participating in most optics standard development efforts at ANSI/OEOSC and ISO, we are
always in-the-know about which standard is most applicable for each situation and optics
requirements, and can give you savvy advice about how to change your specifications,
drawings, or inspection methods. Drop us a line for more information about how Savvy Optics
can help you. Here are a couple of common examples:
ISO 10110 Drawing Standard
Published in 1996, the International standard for optics drawings continues to gain popularity
throughout the world. Based loosely on the German DIN 3140 standard for optics drawings, it
is a pictographic/symbolic notation system intended to reduce the language ambiguity
associated with translation of notes. Nevertheless, it can be quite counter-intuitive for
engineers and opticians trained in the United States, where most drawings are notes-based,
structured loosely on MIL-STD-34 optical drawings notation.
Training and education in the area of this standard is one of Savvy Optics' specialties. With
members on all of the critical working groups for fundamental standards in the US and
Internationally, Savvy Optics always has access to the latest standards and their
interpretations. Currently, Savvy Optics offers the only ISO 10110 on-site training program that
is accredited by OEOSC, the Optics and Electro-Optics Standards Council.
The latest news is that OEOSC will release a new national drawing standard this year, called
ANSI/OEOSC OP1.110. This new standard is based completely upon ISO 10110, but there
are some significant differences. Contact us for more information about this new standard, or
watch the "what's new" page.
Surface Imperfections
Since 1945, MIL-PRF-13830B, in one or another of it's various forms, have been used as the
standard for surface imperfections specification and measurement throughout the world.
Increasingly, though, demanding applications and exacting customers have been making this
standard obsolete. Now the optics industry has a choice of which standard to use, and it's not
always clear which is the best path.
In addition to the MIL standards, there is now ANSI/OEOSC OP1.002-2006, the newest
offering for surface imperfections, based on the original MIL specifications. Savvy
recommends this for anyone who needs a cosmetic specification for new optics, with a
minimum of conversion cost from the MIL methods. Using the same notation and
comparison standards as the MIL, it offers the simplest path forward, for people who can
accept the "relative brightness" metric.
A third alternative is ISO 10110-7. This method, based mostly on the German DIN 3140
standard, is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and around the world. While the
scratch standard is based on line width, the standard does allow for visual comparison, using
chrome-on-glass comparison standards. Since chrome on glass has a very different "relative
brightness" from "real" scratches on an optic, microscopes are often required to validate the
smaller scratch widths. Savvy recommends ISO 10110-7 for applications where actual
scratch width, rather than brightness, are what matters in the application.
Mid-spatial Frequency Ripple (Waviness)
With the world-wide conversion to deterministic polishing methods for the manufacture of
precision aspheres and even spherical optics, an entirely new type of form error has emerged
from the relative obscurity of X-ray optics and high-powered lasers and into the mainstream.
Modern deterministic polishing methods such as MRF or STP will leave a signature "ripple" in
the surface form related to the tool size, the step size, and other polishing parameters.
Mid-spatial frequency (MSF) errors, also called "ripple" or "waviness", are typically defined as
surface form errors that are beyond the practical reach of Zernicke specifications (say 5 or 6
cycles per diameter) but still too long a scale length to be practically evaluated using
roughness measurement instruments (e.g. an AFM). On a typical 50 mm diameter optic, this
would be the 5 mm to 0.1mm spatial periods.
There is no practical standard for mid-spatial frequency ripple on optics per se. There are
some good standards in the automotive industry, and there is an excellent notation standard,
ISO 10110-8, which allows the use of RMS surface texture over discreet wavebands and use
of the best analytic tool for MSF ripple, the power spectral density of the surface profile or PSD.
Since the PSD is a Fourier domain technique, many manufacturers cannot comfortably sign
up to a PSD without some significant hand-holding. Judicious use of notes for RMS slope
specifications or RMS surface errors versus spatial frequency bands are the most common
methods to specify MSF ripple, but each has its weakness.
We are in the process of re-writing the ISO 10110-8 drawing notation to require spatial
bandwidths, allow surface slope callouts, and update the surface texture notation to be
consistent with the new version of ISO 1302. Any comments or feedback on this topic will be
greatly appreciated!
(c) 2007-2010 Savvy Optics Corp. All rights reserved.
and manufacture optics. If you know what you are looking for, just click on the icon on the left
for the appropriate standards agency and your browser will spawn a new session where you
can buy and download the applicable US and International Standards. NSSN is a handy tool
to help you find standards applicable to your business.
Click on the link below to see my lists of some of the key ISO, MIL, and ANSI/ASME standards
that matter to optics. If you work in the field and aren't familiar with all of these, you probably
should be.
Savvy about Standards
At Savvy Optics, we specialize in National and International standards for optics. With experts
participating in most optics standard development efforts at ANSI/OEOSC and ISO, we are
always in-the-know about which standard is most applicable for each situation and optics
requirements, and can give you savvy advice about how to change your specifications,
drawings, or inspection methods. Drop us a line for more information about how Savvy Optics
can help you. Here are a couple of common examples:
ISO 10110 Drawing Standard
Published in 1996, the International standard for optics drawings continues to gain popularity
throughout the world. Based loosely on the German DIN 3140 standard for optics drawings, it
is a pictographic/symbolic notation system intended to reduce the language ambiguity
associated with translation of notes. Nevertheless, it can be quite counter-intuitive for
engineers and opticians trained in the United States, where most drawings are notes-based,
structured loosely on MIL-STD-34 optical drawings notation.
Training and education in the area of this standard is one of Savvy Optics' specialties. With
members on all of the critical working groups for fundamental standards in the US and
Internationally, Savvy Optics always has access to the latest standards and their
interpretations. Currently, Savvy Optics offers the only ISO 10110 on-site training program that
is accredited by OEOSC, the Optics and Electro-Optics Standards Council.
The latest news is that OEOSC will release a new national drawing standard this year, called
ANSI/OEOSC OP1.110. This new standard is based completely upon ISO 10110, but there
are some significant differences. Contact us for more information about this new standard, or
watch the "what's new" page.
Surface Imperfections
Since 1945, MIL-PRF-13830B, in one or another of it's various forms, have been used as the
standard for surface imperfections specification and measurement throughout the world.
Increasingly, though, demanding applications and exacting customers have been making this
standard obsolete. Now the optics industry has a choice of which standard to use, and it's not
always clear which is the best path.
In addition to the MIL standards, there is now ANSI/OEOSC OP1.002-2006, the newest
offering for surface imperfections, based on the original MIL specifications. Savvy
recommends this for anyone who needs a cosmetic specification for new optics, with a
minimum of conversion cost from the MIL methods. Using the same notation and
comparison standards as the MIL, it offers the simplest path forward, for people who can
accept the "relative brightness" metric.
A third alternative is ISO 10110-7. This method, based mostly on the German DIN 3140
standard, is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and around the world. While the
scratch standard is based on line width, the standard does allow for visual comparison, using
chrome-on-glass comparison standards. Since chrome on glass has a very different "relative
brightness" from "real" scratches on an optic, microscopes are often required to validate the
smaller scratch widths. Savvy recommends ISO 10110-7 for applications where actual
scratch width, rather than brightness, are what matters in the application.
Mid-spatial Frequency Ripple (Waviness)
With the world-wide conversion to deterministic polishing methods for the manufacture of
precision aspheres and even spherical optics, an entirely new type of form error has emerged
from the relative obscurity of X-ray optics and high-powered lasers and into the mainstream.
Modern deterministic polishing methods such as MRF or STP will leave a signature "ripple" in
the surface form related to the tool size, the step size, and other polishing parameters.
Mid-spatial frequency (MSF) errors, also called "ripple" or "waviness", are typically defined as
surface form errors that are beyond the practical reach of Zernicke specifications (say 5 or 6
cycles per diameter) but still too long a scale length to be practically evaluated using
roughness measurement instruments (e.g. an AFM). On a typical 50 mm diameter optic, this
would be the 5 mm to 0.1mm spatial periods.
There is no practical standard for mid-spatial frequency ripple on optics per se. There are
some good standards in the automotive industry, and there is an excellent notation standard,
ISO 10110-8, which allows the use of RMS surface texture over discreet wavebands and use
of the best analytic tool for MSF ripple, the power spectral density of the surface profile or PSD.
Since the PSD is a Fourier domain technique, many manufacturers cannot comfortably sign
up to a PSD without some significant hand-holding. Judicious use of notes for RMS slope
specifications or RMS surface errors versus spatial frequency bands are the most common
methods to specify MSF ripple, but each has its weakness.
We are in the process of re-writing the ISO 10110-8 drawing notation to require spatial
bandwidths, allow surface slope callouts, and update the surface texture notation to be
consistent with the new version of ISO 1302. Any comments or feedback on this topic will be
greatly appreciated!
(c) 2007-2010 Savvy Optics Corp. All rights reserved.
Standards News
The next meeting for ISO TC172/SC1 has been scheduled for the week of October 10, 2011 in
Okinawa, Japan. After that, we have our annual meetings in San Francisco for OEOSC in
January, in conjunction with Photonics west
The next meeting for ISO TC172/SC1 has been scheduled for the week of October 10, 2011 in
Okinawa, Japan. After that, we have our annual meetings in San Francisco for OEOSC in
January, in conjunction with Photonics west
 | Check out the meeting schedule at Photonics West | |
| Contact OEOSC to become an expert | |
