High resolution lenses for machine vision — standard and custom lens design
History of Microscopes and Microscopic Lenses
High Resolution Lenses for machine vision, instrumentation, inspection and vibration-sensitive applications. Standard and custom hi-res lens assemblies.
Visible light is a factor in the operation of optical microscopes as these pieces of equipment use the visible light and a collection of lenses to magnify samples that are unable to be seen by the naked eye. The technology built into an optical microscope has been in use since the 18th century when the first optical microscope was invented.
Because of its compact, portable size, comparatively low price and ease of use, these microscopes were extremely popular in their time as they magnified objects up to 1500 times. The original optical microscope used one pair of lenses to create an area in which to magnify an image of the sample on the slide. Today, this simple structure is only seen in the form of a handheld magnifying glass.
As with all technologies, the original optical microscope morphed into the type used today, the compound optical microscope. A compound optical microscope uses a complex network of lenses to compound, multiply and enhance the magnification as a way to maximize the object being viewed. In the multiple lens network of an optical microscope, there are objective lenses, those nearest to the sample under examination and the lens in the eyepiece with more than one lens in both the objective section and the eyepiece section of the microscope.
While the original optical microscope used a mirror to enhance illumination, today’s microscopes use a powerful lamp that provides both a strong and a constant source of illumination.
In the use of a microscope, the sample is best viewed in a transparent state where it has been compressed between two slides to a consistency that allows light to pass through it. However, small pieces of metal and other materials that are not transparent are able to be viewed due to the force of the light that is used beneath the slides.
With low power lighting, microscopes are used to examine small living plants and animals and at higher power lighting they are used to examine bacterial samples. Without the advances in microscopic technologies, many of the advances that have been made in the medical and biological fields might not have been possible. Prior to the invention of microscopes, researchers were unable to understand how our blood flowed in our bodies but the advancements in the microscope made it possible for researchers and scientists to examine the small blood vessels.