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Rochester, NY: The Accredited Standards Committee for
fundamental optics standards, ASC OP, has voted to begin the
process of adopting the Organization for International
Standardization (ISO) drawing standards as the national
drawing standards for optics in the United States. Reviewing
and preparing the fourteen parts of the international drawing
standards, ISO 10110-1 through ISO 10110-17, is expected to
be complete by 2009. This review reflects the need to
consider the documentary standards requirements of the U.S.
optics industry. This action was motivated by the recent vote
by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to
withdraw the existing national drawing standard, ANSI/ASME
Y14.18, which has not been updated since 1986.
Since their publication in 1996, the ISO drawing standards
have been controversial, especially in the United States. The
international standards were drafted based on the German
Industry Standards (DIN 3140) with minimal consideration for
the active U.S. Military drawing standards such as
MIL-PRF-13830B, MIL-G-174B or MIL-STD-34. Thus the ISO
standards are a significant departure from standard practice
in the United States and many other countries. In spite of
this, the ISO standards have been gaining momentum and
support throughout the industry, and have been adopted as the
national optics drawing standards in many countries including
Japan, Germany, France, and Russia, among others. In the
U.S., the drawing standard ANSI/ASME Y14.18:1986, which is
based on MIL-STD-34, is so out of date that it would take an
extensive effort to re-author it to serve the modern optics
industry.
Gene Kohlenberg, OEOSC Executive Director, said, “In a
change of policy, ASC OP has elected to scuttle plans for
revision of the existing U.S. drawing standard, and adopt the
international standards instead. The standards will be
augmented with supplementary national standards as
necessary.” As the result of a unanimous vote of
attending experts, ASC OP has formed a task force which will
coordinate the technical review of the standards over the
next two years and prepare some or all of them for submittal
to the general committee for adoption.
Allen Krisiloff, Chairperson-elect of the OEOSC Board of
Directors said, “Dave Aikens of Savvy Optics Corp, the
current head of the U.S. delegation to ISO/TC 172/SC 1, the
ISO subcommittee on fundamental standards for optics and
photonics, has been appointed Leader of the new Task
Force.” The U.S. implementation of the standard is
expected to allow continued use of existing U.S. optics
standards for glass and surface quality.
The following optical standards meetings will be held during
the OSA annual meeting in Rochester, NY, in the Corinthian
Room of the Rochester Plaza Hotel (formerly the Crown
Plaza).
- ASC OP/TF 3 is planning to continue development of a new
optical wavefront measurement standard. The meeting will be
held on October 21, 2008, 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon.
- ASC OP/TF 4 will continue the process of adopting
selected ISO 10110 parts as an American National Standard on
October 20, 2008, 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon.
- The ASC OP business meeting is scheduled on Monday,
October 20, 2008, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm.
Anyone who is interested in these meetings should contact
Gene Kohlenberg at
gene.kohlenberg@optstd.org,
(585) 217-2491, or c/o OPTSTD, PO Box 25705, Rochester, NY
14625-0705 for more information.
A training session intended to assist designers and
engineers to specify allowable optical surface imperfections
on elements and components will be held in San Jose, CA,
during SPIE's Photonics West on Monday, January 26, 2009
1:30 pm – 5:30 pm.
Surface imperfection specifications (i.e. Scratch-Dig) are
among the most misunderstood, misinterpreted, and ambiguous
of all optics component specifications. This course provides
the attendees with an understanding of the source of
ambiguity in surface imperfection specifications, and
provides the context needed to properly specify surface
imperfections using a variety of specification standards,
and to evaluate a given optic to a particular level of
surface imperfection specification. The course focuses on
the differences and application of the former Mil-O-13830,
ISO 10110-7, and the new ANSI/OEOSC/OP1.002-2006. Many
practical and useful specification examples are included
throughout, as well as a hands-on demonstration on visual
comparison evaluation techniques.
Registration information for this course can be found on the
SPIE web site by clicking
here.
This course will be held during SPIE's Photonics West in San
Jose, CA on Wednesday January 26, 2008, 8:30 am –
5:30 pm. It provides attendees with an understanding of
ISO-10110, the International Standard for Optics drawing
notations. The course concentrates on the fundamentals of the
drawing layout and notations required for typical optics,
such as glass parameters, radius, wave-front, surface
imperfections and roughness. Attendees are also introduced to
all other sections of the drawing standard, including proper
notation for aspheres, laser damage threshold, and
transmitted wave front error. Practical and useful examples
are included throughout.
Registration information for this course can be found on the
SPIE web site by clicking
here.
The Accredited Standards Committee OP "Optics and
Electro-Optical Instruments" is soliciting optical experts
who represent companies who are industrial users of optics.
An industrial user purchases optical components to be
assembled into products that the company offers for sale.
These experts will be working with representatives of
companies who produce optical components and experts who have
general interest in optics, such as academic representatives
and personnel from professional societies and trade
organizations. Those who are interested may apply for
membership using the
form on this
web site.
If you need more information, view the information in the
ASC OP section of this web site, or
contact Gene Kohlenberg at gene.kohlenberg@optstd.org or
585-217-2491.