Diamond Turning

Syntec Optics Diamond Turning Team is comprised of individuals with a broad background in diamond turning. Stemming from the Moore M18 days to the most current, state of the art Precitech nanotechnology diamond turning machines available today, we have 36 years of combined diamond turning experience.

Syntec Optics is one of the very few facilities worldwide with deep expertise in diamond turning, mold manufacturing and design for manufacturability. We offer the right method for your application, including Single Point Diamond Turning and our patented High Refraction Diamond Turning.

Deep expertise in diamond turning allows Syntec Optics fine tune machining conditions as per the materials. Selecting the right material is an important part of making a successful product. We diamond turn a wide variety of materials including many metals, plastics, and crystals for advanced diamond machining applications.

We have expertise in manufacturing ultra-precision diamond machined components. Many surface types have been turned on and off axis. We can raster cut with a 3-axis machine with our unique diamond machining techniques! We machine various types of diamond turning surfaces from diffractives to aspheres.

You can choose diamond-turned finished optics or molded Optics, confident that both will perform identically. Diamond turning prototypes reduce the total time and cost for product development by overlapping the time needed to create/change molds. We can diamond-turn prototypes in less than four weeks.

Using advanced optical plastics like Ultem™, HRDT (High Refraction Diamond Turning) can reliably achieve a surface as smooth as 60 Angstroms, with even smoother surfaces theoretically possible. HRDT, a patented process from Syntec Optics, enables direct diamond turning lowering costs by 2 to 5X.

Syntec Optics is involved in the manufacturing and development of Diamond Turned Optics. We provide the best quality components in various plastic optics materials ranging from acrylic to zeonex and other high refractive index polymers. We also provide prototypes and production lenses for non-ferrous optical elements.

Rapid prototyping is a major application of single point diamond turning technology. Diamond turned optics allow flexibility, time and cost calculations needed for R&D programs. With diamond turned prototypes offer, there is no need to invest in fabricating expensive injection molding tools during the development stage.

Sometimes molded plastic optics cannot serve as a long-term production option. This may be due to a low number of units to be made per year or due to higher critical tolerances on form and roughness of optical surfaces. Under such circumstances, diamond turning is an ideal process to produce optical elements.

Ferrous materials are not easily machinable because the carbon in the diamond tool chemically reacts with the substrate, which causes tool damage. Syntec Optics can use diamond machining technology to make Aluminum mirrors, Germanium lenses and other non-ferrous optics made of Nickel, Brass, Copper, etc.

Diamond turning is an ideal process to make infrared optics because at longer wavelengths optical performance is less sensitive to surface finish quality and many of the IR optics materials are difficult to polish with traditional methods. Mostly, diamond turning method does not need post-production polishing.