What's it about?

This paper will look at how cylinder manufacturing methods can influence specification, offering recommendations on what to consider when designing.

1. CYLINDER MANUFACTURING METHODS

A cylindrical lens contains an optical surface that has a radius in one direction and is flat in the orthogonal direction. The manufacturing methods used in making cylinders account for this axis, conserving its position as part of the process. There are two main options in cylinder manufacture, with R-number (radius of curvature divided by diameter/width) and order quantity determining which of the two is chosen.

There is an important geometry convention to remember with cylinders. Length is always the dimension along the plano axis and width is the dimension across the power axis, even if length is smaller than width...