Compact telecentric lighting

Precision and efficiency in optical measurement thanks to telecentric technology

Optical measurements are of crucial importance in numerous applications. Be it in the dimensional control of products, in microscopy or in robotics. The accuracy and reproducibility of these measurements often depends on the quality of the optics used. This is where telecentric lenses and illumination come into play, offering immense advantages.

Telecentric lenses: distortion-free precision

Telecentric lenses are indispensable helpers when it comes to high-precision optical measurements. Their outstanding feature is the elimination of perspective distortions. These distortions, which occur with conventional lenses, can significantly impair the accuracy of measurements. Telecentric lenses ensure that light rays run parallel to the optical axis, resulting in a constant image size and depth of field. This enables extremely precise and reproducible measurements.

Telecentric lighting: Uniform brightness and clear vision

In addition to the telecentric lenses, the illuminations are also of crucial importance. Telecentric illuminators have been specially developed to ensure uniform and parallel illumination of the object to be measured. Here are some of the most important features and modes of operation:

• Parallelism of light beams: telecentric illuminators produce light beams that are parallel to the optical axis. This ensures that the light hits the surface of the object evenly from all angles without creating perspective distortions. This parallelism is ideal for complementing the telecentric properties of the lenses.

• Uniform illumination: Telecentric illumination ensures uniform brightness over the entire object field. This ensures uniform illumination of the detection area of a telecentric lens, which in turn leads to more consistent measurement results.

• Elimination of shadows and reflections : The parallel incident light beams minimize or even eliminate shadows and unwanted reflections. This creates precise grey value transitions for µm-accurate localization of object edges.

• Reduction of surface reflections: Telecentric illumination can complement special techniques such as dark field or grazing light illumination to minimize surface reflections and make finer details of the object visible. This is particularly important when measuring shiny or reflective surfaces.

Until now, however, there have been two disadvantages with conventional telecentric lighting: They were large and expensive. However, this will change thanks to an innovative solution from our engineers.