Quantitative evaluation of performance of three-dimensional printed lenses

Abstract

We present an analysis of the shape, surface quality, and imaging capabilities of custom 3D printed lenses. 3D printing technology enables lens prototypes to be fabricated without restrictions on surface geometry. Thus, spherical, aspherical and rotationally non-symmetric lenses can be manufactured in an integrated production process. This technique serves as a noteworthy alternative to multistage, labor-intensive, abrasive processes such as grinding, polishing and diamond turning. Here, we evaluate the quality of lenses fabricated by Luxexcel using patented Printoptical© technology that is based on an inkjet printing technique by comparing them to lenses made with traditional glass processing technologies (grinding, polishing etc.). The surface geometry and roughness of the lenses were evaluated using white-light and Fizeau interferometers. We have compared peak-to-valley wavefront deviation, root-mean-squared wavefront error, radii of curvature and the arithmetic average of the roughness profile (Ra) of plastic and glass lenses. Additionally, the imaging performance of selected pairs of lenses was tested using 1951 USAF resolution target. The results indicate performance of 3D printed optics that could be manufactured with surface roughness comparable to that of injection molded lenses (Ra < 20 nm). The RMS wavefront error of 3D printed prototypes was at a minimum 18.8 times larger than equivalent glass prototypes for a lens with a 12.7 mm clear aperture, but when measured within 63% of its clear aperture, 3D printed components’ RMS wavefront error was comparable to glass lenses.

Multi-element lenslet array for efficient solar collection at extreme angles of incidence

“…www.nature.com/scientificreports www.nature.com/scientificreports/ the internal plastic layering, and reflective losses per optical surface of approximately 4.3%, see supplementary material. Our measured loss shows a slight improvement compared to previous research that employs similar approaches to 3D printing optics 37,40 . Figure 5 illustrates the steps taken to 3D print and post-process the lenslet arrays.…”

3D Printed Contact Lenses

“…The discs initially obtained from the 3D printing process were showing a lower range of transmittance (∼50%) upon exposure to visible light. So, the optimization process 41 was carried out to achieve the satisfactory level of transmittance, and the results are shown in Figure 4 . The lower range of transmittance was due to the strong adherence of the samples with the print bed causing surface damaged during the removal process, as well as the poor surface finish of the print bed ( Figure 4 A).…”

3D Printing in Eye Care

“…The technology theoretically holds unique benefits to both ends of the socioeconomic market: it allows highly customizable fittings for high-end purchases while also enabling local and efficient production in remote, low-resource settings [ 8 ]. It has been shown to produce lenses of comparable surface roughness and wavefront aberrations as conventionally produced lenses [ 140 ].…”