Case Study: 3000 - 5000 nm Wide Band Pass Filter

Case Study: Wide Infrared Bandpass Filters for Thermal Imaging in Glass Manufacture Monitoring

Customer Challenge: A customer in the glass forming industry approached Vortex with a need for a wide infrared bandpass filter that transmit light in the 3000-5000 nm range. These filters were essential for monitoring temperatures in the glass-forming process, which involves high temperatures up to 1600 °C (2900 °F). The challenge was to develop filters that could withstand the harsh, high-temperature environment while providing accurate and reliable temperature measurements.

Vortex’s Solution: One of the factors that made Vortex an ideal partner for this application was the fact that we use sputter deposition techniques as opposed to traditional evaporation techniques. The 2 main benefits of this are:

• Lower Thermal Drift: Sputtered coatings have a far higher packing density, this is because the atoms/molecules are deposited with a much higher kinetic energy, (1000X times higher in sputtering compared to evaporation), leading to a densely packed structure with fewer voids and defects. This means that as the substrate and coating heat up, the coatings performance hardly shifts.
• Excellent Adhesion and Environmental Properties: Such filters are suitable for observing these high temperature processes and providing protection for components further back in the optical system.

The Result:  The filters have been supplied over several years (on a call off basis) and have worked as intended with no issues thanks to the robust nature of our sputtered coatings. Vortex continues to play a key role in the world of process and quality monitoring, please contact us to discuss your specific requirements.