Injection/Compression Molding

Through our strategic alliance with Apollo Optical Systems, RPC Photonics offers large-volume injection molding of optical quality micro-optical elements.

Some of our injection-molded Engineered Diffusers™ can be purchased through the Thorlabs catalog and we are currently in production of various injection-molded products for applications such as LED illumination.

The first step to start injection-molding components is the production of a metal master, usually nickel.

A mold tool also needs to be built, which is usually the longest lead item and may require 10-12 weeks. RPC Photonics already has mold tools for a few specific part sizes such as 1in round and 2x2in square so that if a particular application requires this size one may skip building a new mold tool.

Once the mold tool and metal master are available it comes down to material selection and process development to establish the optimum production conditions followed by full-fledged manufacturing.