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BK7 & K9 Optical Glass Material & Performance FAQ
Custom BK7 & K9 Optical Glass Processing FAQ
Optical Glass AR Coating & Quality Control FAQ
Optical Glass Domes FAQs
Optical Domes FAQs
Optical Glass Supplier FAQs

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What are your lead times and shipping terms for optical glass orders?

As a reliable optical glass supplier, we understand the importance of on-time delivery for your projects, and we offer flexible lead times and shipping terms to meet your requirements. Lead Times: - Standard Products: For our in-stock optical glass domes, lenses and windows, we typically ship within 7-15 working days after order confirmation and payment.- Custom Orders: Lead times for custom optical glass components depend on complexity, size and order volume. Our team will provide a detailed production schedule during the quotation process, with typical lead times ranging from 20-45 working days. We also offer expedited production services for urgent projects, subject to availability. Shipping Terms:We support a variety of global shipping options to meet your delivery timeline and budget: - Express Courier: For small orders and prototypes, we ship via DHL, FedEx or UPS, with delivery times of 3-7 days to most countries.- Air Freight: For medium-sized orders, we offer air freight shipping with delivery times of 7-14 days.- Sea Freight: For large-volume orders, we provide sea freight shipping with delivery times of 30-45 days, offering the most cost-effective solution. We can also work with your preferred logistics provider and offer flexible Incoterms (FOB, CIF, DDP, etc.) to simplify the shipping process. Our sales team will provide you with tracking information once your order is shipped, so you can monitor the delivery status in real time. At Felix Glass, we are committed to reliable, on-time delivery, and we will keep you updated on the progress of your order every step of the way.

Can you provide custom optical glass solutions for OEM projects?

Absolutely. As a customer-centric optical glass supplier, we specialize in providing turnkey OEM and ODM custom optical glass solutions for global optical equipment manufacturers, engineering companies and research institutions. Our custom service process includes: 1. Requirement Consultation: Our optical engineering team works closely with you to understand your application, performance requirements, budget and timeline, providing professional recommendations on material selection, design optimization and coating solutions.2. Design & Prototyping: We develop custom designs based on your specifications, using advanced optical simulation software to verify performance. We then produce prototypes for your testing and validation, with quick turnaround times for small-batch trial runs.3. Mass Production: Once the prototype is approved, we scale up production using our high-precision manufacturing equipment, maintaining consistent quality and tight tolerances across large orders. We offer flexible production volumes, from small batches to high-volume runs.4. Quality Assurance & Delivery: All custom optical glass products undergo the same rigorous quality testing as our standard products. We provide full inspection reports and coordinate global shipping, with flexible delivery terms to meet your project schedule. Whether you need a custom optical dome for a new surveillance camera, a specialized lens for a medical device, or a complete optical system component, Felix Glass can provide a tailored solution to meet your exact needs.

Are you an ISO-certified optical glass supplier?

Yes, Felix Glass is an ISO 9001:2015 certified optical glass supplier, committed to delivering consistent, high-quality optical products to our customers worldwide. Our ISO certification means that every stage of our manufacturing process adheres to internationally recognized quality management standards: 1. Raw Material Control: We only source optical-grade raw materials from qualified suppliers, with incoming inspection for purity, homogeneity and optical properties to ensure batch-to-batch consistency.2. Process Control: Our production lines follow standardized operating procedures (SOPs) for grinding, polishing, coating and assembly, with in-process inspections at every critical step to prevent defects.3. Quality Testing: Every optical glass product undergoes comprehensive testing before shipment, including dimensional tolerance checks, surface quality inspection, optical transmittance measurement, coating performance verification and environmental durability testing.4. Continuous Improvement: Our quality management system includes regular audits, corrective action processes and customer feedback loops to continuously improve our products and services. As an ISO-certified optical glass supplier, we provide full inspection reports, material certificates and quality documentation upon request, giving you complete confidence in the reliability and performance of our products.

What types of optical glass products do you supply?

As a leading optical glass supplier with over years of manufacturing experience, Felix Glass offers a comprehensive portfolio of high-precision optical components tailored to meet the diverse needs of global industries. Our core product range includes: - Optical domes: Precision domes made from BK7/K9 glass, sapphire and fused silica, with custom sizes, coatings and tolerances for surveillance, underwater, aerospace and industrial use.- Optical lenses: Spherical, aspherical and cylindrical lenses for imaging, illumination and laser applications, available in various materials and coatings.- Optical windows: Flat, wedged and protective windows with anti-reflective, high-reflective and other specialized coatings for sensors, lasers and optical systems.- Prisms and beam splitters: Right-angle prisms, penta prisms, roof prisms and custom beam splitters for light path manipulation in optical instruments.- Custom optical components: We support OEM/ODM manufacturing of non-standard optical parts according to customer drawings, samples and technical specifications, including complex shapes, special materials and unique coating requirements. All our optical glass products are manufactured under strict quality control standards, with raw material selection, precision processing, surface polishing, coating application and final inspection completed in-house. We serve customers in aerospace, defense, medical, life sciences, industrial automation and consumer optics, providing reliable, high-performance optical solutions.

Are your optical domes scratch resistant?

Our optical domes are designed with hierarchical scratch resistance solutions according to different application environments, meeting the wear and impact protection needs of various harsh scenarios. Sapphire optical domes are the highest grade in scratch resistance, with Mohs hardness up to 9, second only to diamond. It has super strong anti-scratch, anti-abrasion, high temperature resistance and chemical corrosion resistance, not easy to be scratched by sand, dust and hard foreign objects in long-term outdoor, underwater and aerospace environments, maintaining long-term surface finish and clear imaging effect. For conventional BK7/K9 optical glass domes, we can deposit high-performance DLC diamond-like carbon coating on the polished surface. The DLC coating has ultra-high surface hardness, effectively improving scratch resistance, friction resistance and anti-fouling ability, avoiding daily wear and surface scratches affecting optical transmittance. In addition, we can match hydrophobic and anti-fog coating on the basis of scratch resistance, making the optical dome surface waterproof, oil-proof, not easy to adhere dust and water mist, reducing manual cleaning and maintenance frequency. Felix Glass can recommend the most suitable material and coating scratch resistance solution according to your installation environment, working temperature and service life requirements, ensuring the optical domes maintain stable performance for years of continuous operation.

Can you make custom size optical domes?

Yes, we are a professional manufacturer fully capable of providing full-size and full-parameter customized optical domes for global customers, covering prototype small-batch trial production to large-scale mass stable supply. We can customize all core parameters of optical domes, including outer diameter, inner diameter, uniform or tapered wall thickness, spherical curvature radius and concentricity accuracy. We support various edge processing methods such as flat mouth, chamfer, rounding and special-shaped mounting structure, and can process strictly in accordance with customer CAD drawings, PDF technical specifications or physical sample copying requirements. We adopt high-precision CNC grinding equipment and ultra-precision polishing technology to strictly control dimensional tolerance, surface quality and optical performance of each customized optical dome. Optional materials include BK7/K9 optical glass, synthetic sapphire and fused silica, matched with multi-layer AR anti-reflective, IR infrared, DLC wear-resistant and hydrophobic anti-fog coatings according to working wavelength and application environment. Our professional optical engineering team can also provide design optimization suggestions for your structural parameters, helping you balance optical performance, mechanical strength and cost budget. All customized optical domes implement full-process quality inspection, provide inspection reports and qualification certificates, and support stable long-term order delivery for overseas importers, engineering companies and optical equipment manufacturers.

What is the difference between optical dome and ordinary glass?

There are essential differences in raw material composition, production process, optical performance and application scenarios between professional optical domes and ordinary glass. Ordinary glass mostly adopts common soda-lime raw materials, containing a large number of internal impurities, bubbles, stripes and uneven material density. Its light transmittance is low, optical distortion is serious, dimensional tolerance is loose, and it cannot bear precise optical matching and thin-film coating process, only suitable for building doors, windows and simple isolation protection, absolutely unable to meet the requirements of precision imaging and photoelectric sensing equipment. In contrast, Felix Glass optical domes use high-purity optical grade raw materials with strict material sorting and fine annealing treatment to eliminate internal stress. After ultra-precision grinding and high-precision surface polishing, the surface reaches high scratch-dig grade with ultra-smooth roughness, achieving ultra-high light transmittance, excellent optical uniformity and extremely low imaging distortion. Meanwhile, optical domes have stable physical and chemical properties, strong temperature shock resistance and corrosion resistance, and can perfectly match various professional optical coatings such as AR, IR and DLC. For high-end surveillance cameras, underwater detection systems, aerospace photoelectric pods and industrial machine vision equipment, only professional optical domes can ensure long-term stable and clear optical performance, while ordinary glass will cause image deformation, light scattering and equipment failure in a short time.

What are optical domes used for?

Professional optical domes are core precision optical protective components widely deployed across global industries including security surveillance, underwater marine engineering, aerospace defense, industrial machine vision and medical optoelectronic equipment. Manufactured from high-purity BK7/K9 optical glass, synthetic sapphire and fused silica raw materials, our optical domes feature ultra-high visible and infrared light transmittance, excellent optical uniformity and minimal wavefront distortion. The streamlined spherical structure can effectively isolate external interference such as dust, rain, snow, sand, moisture and mechanical impact, ensuring the internal optical lens and sensor maintain stable, high-definition imaging performance in long-term outdoor and harsh working environments. At Felix Glass, every optical dome is processed by ultra-precision surface polishing, strict annealing treatment and multi-layer optical coating customization. We support AR anti-reflective coating, IR infrared coating, DLC wear-resistant coating and hydrophobic anti-fog coating, greatly improving light transmittance, scratch resistance and environmental adaptability. Whether for standard commercial monitoring equipment or high-end customized aerospace optical systems, our optical domes can provide reliable long-term protective solutions.

What is the tolerance and quality standard for your optical glass domes?

At Felix Glass, quality and precision are the cornerstones of every optical glass dome we produce. We adhere to strict manufacturing and inspection standards to ensure your domes meet or exceed your specifications.**Dimensional Tolerances:**We achieve extremely tight tolerances on all critical parameters:- **Diameter Tolerance:** ±0.01 mm or better- **Thickness Tolerance:** ±0.005 mm- **Radius of Curvature Tolerance:** ±0.1% or better, depending on complexity- **Centration Error:** Less than 1 arc minute, ensuring perfect alignment- **Surface Irregularity:** λ/10 or better at 632.8 nm, for minimal wavefront distortionThese tight tolerances ensure that each dome is optically matched to your system, eliminating image aberration and ensuring consistent performance.**Surface Quality & Finish:**The surface quality of our domes is measured using the MIL-PRF-13830B scratch-dig standard. We routinely produce domes with:- Surface quality up to **10/5** (scratch/dig) for high-precision applications- Precision-polished surfaces with minimal roughness (Ra - Edge finishing options including fine grinding, chamfering, and polishing to eliminate stress pointsThis level of finish is critical for applications requiring high light transmission and low scatter.**Quality Assurance & Certifications:**All our manufacturing processes are conducted under an ISO 9001:2015 certified quality management system. Every optical glass dome undergoes a multi-point inspection before shipment, including:1.  Visual and interferometric inspection for surface defects2.  Dimensional verification using coordinate measuring machines (CMM)3.  Optical testing for transmission, reflection, and wavefront error4.  Coating performance verificationWe provide full inspection reports and certification upon request, giving you complete confidence in the quality and reliability of our products.At Felix Glass, we believe that true quality is built into every step of the process, from raw material selection to final testing.

What applications are your optical glass domes suitable for?

Our optical glass domes are engineered to meet the demanding needs of a diverse range of industries and applications where optical clarity, environmental protection, and structural integrity are non-negotiable.**1. Surveillance & Security Systems**Our domes are widely used in high-speed PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras, fixed surveillance cameras, and traffic monitoring systems. They protect sensitive camera lenses from dust, rain, vandalism, and extreme weather conditions while maintaining distortion-free, clear imaging across the entire field of view. Our anti-reflective and anti-fog coatings ensure optimal performance day and night.**2. Underwater Imaging & Marine Technology**Designed to withstand high water pressure, our domes are essential components for underwater cameras, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and marine research equipment. Sapphire and high-grade BK7 domes offer superior pressure resistance and corrosion protection, delivering sharp, undistorted images even at significant depths.**3. Aerospace & Defense**For aircraft, satellites, drones, and defense systems, we manufacture high-precision optical domes for sensors, targeting systems, and navigation cameras. These domes must withstand extreme temperatures, vibration, and high altitudes. We use materials like sapphire and fused silica, combined with durable coatings, to ensure reliable performance in the harshest aerospace environments.**4. Industrial Machine Vision & Automation**In factory automation, quality control, and robotics, our domes protect vision system cameras and sensors from debris, oil, moisture, and high-temperature environments. Their high light transmission and low distortion ensure consistent, accurate imaging for inspection, measurement, and process monitoring tasks.**5. Medical & Life Sciences**We supply domes for medical imaging equipment, endoscopes, and diagnostic devices, where biocompatibility, optical clarity, and sterilization resistance are critical. Our sapphire domes, in particular, are ideal for reusable medical instruments due to their durability and chemical inertness.At Felix Glass, we don’t just sell domes; we provide application-specific solutions. Our team will work with you to understand your unique operating conditions and recommend the perfect optical glass dome solution for your project.

Can you customize the size and coating of optical glass domes?

Absolutely. At Felix Glass, we specialize in custom optical glass domes tailored to your exact project requirements, from initial design to final delivery.**Custom Size & Geometry:**We manufacture domes in a wide range of sizes, from small miniature domes for compact sensors to large-diameter domes for industrial and aerospace applications. We can produce domes with custom:- Outer and inner diameters- Wall thicknesses (including uniform or tapered profiles)- Radii of curvature (both spherical and aspherical options)- Edge profiles (bevelled, flat, or threaded mounting surfaces)We can work directly from your CAD drawings or specifications, and our engineering team can also help refine your design for manufacturability and optimal optical performance.**Advanced Coating Options:**To maximize the performance of your custom optical glass dome, we offer a comprehensive range of thin-film coatings:- **Anti-Reflective (AR) Coatings:** Our multi-layer AR coatings significantly reduce surface reflection, boosting light transmission to over 99.5% across your target wavelength range (visible, NIR, SWIR). This eliminates glare, improves image clarity, and enhances the performance of your optical system.- **Infrared (IR) Coatings:** For night vision, thermal imaging, and IR sensor applications, we offer high-transmission IR coatings optimized for specific wavelength bands.- **Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) Coatings:** These ultra-hard coatings provide excellent scratch and chemical resistance, ideal for domes used in harsh, high-abrasion environments.- **Anti-Fog & Hydrophobic Coatings:** These coatings repel water, prevent fogging, and make the dome surface easier to clean, perfect for outdoor surveillance and underwater applications.- **Custom Filter Coatings:** We can also apply custom bandpass, notch, or neutral density filters integrated directly onto the dome surface for specialized optical systems.Whether you need a one-off prototype or a high-volume production run, we ensure every custom optical glass dome meets our strict quality standards and your precise specifications.

What materials do you use for optical glass domes?

At Felix Glass, we manufacture optical glass domes using three primary high-performance materials, each chosen for its unique optical and mechanical properties:1.  **BK7 / K9 Optical Glass**    This is our most widely used material for standard optical glass domes. BK7/K9 offers exceptional visible light transmission (over 91% across the visible spectrum), low thermal expansion, and excellent homogeneity. It is ideal for applications such as surveillance cameras, general industrial vision systems, and consumer optics where cost-effectiveness and reliable performance are key. We offer BK7/K9 domes in various grades, including fine annealed options to minimize stress-induced birefringence.2.  **Synthetic Sapphire**    Sapphire optical domes are the premium choice for demanding environments. With a Mohs hardness of 9, sapphire is nearly scratch-proof and offers superior resistance to high temperatures, chemicals, and abrasion. It provides excellent transmission from the UV to the IR spectrum, making it perfect for aerospace sensors, underwater cameras, high-temperature industrial systems, and medical equipment where durability is critical.3.  **Fused Silica (Quartz)**    Fused silica domes are selected for applications requiring superior UV transmission or extreme thermal stability. They exhibit very low thermal expansion, making them resistant to thermal shock, and offer excellent transmission down to deep UV wavelengths. This material is commonly used in UV imaging systems, high-power laser applications, and high-temperature industrial monitoring equipment.We don’t just supply materials—our engineering team will help you select the optimal material based on your specific wavelength requirements, operating environment, durability needs, and budget to ensure your optical glass dome performs reliably over its entire lifecycle. 

Can you provide test reports for your optical glass products?

Yes, at Felix Glass, we can provide detailed test reports for all BK7 and K9 optical glass products, giving you full visibility into the quality and performance of your order.Our test reports include comprehensive information about the parts, including dimensional specifications, surface quality inspection results, and optical performance test data.For standard optical glass parts, we provide a basic test report that includes dimensional verification, surface roughness measurement, and visible light transmittance testing.For custom or high-precision parts, we can provide more detailed reports that include additional test data such as flatness, parallelism, coating thickness, and environmental resistance.For coated optical glass parts, we provide specific coating test reports that include transmittance and reflectance data across the target wavelength range, coating thickness uniformity, and adhesion test results. These reports verify that the coating meets the specified requirements and will perform as expected in your application.All test reports are based on actual measurements taken during our quality control process using calibrated testing equipment such as spectrophotometers, interferometers, and coordinate measuring machines. The reports are signed and dated by our quality team, and include information about the test methods used and the applicable standards.If you have specific test requirements or need to comply with industry or customer standards, we can customize the test reports to include the required information.Providing test reports is part of our commitment to transparency and quality assurance. We want our customers to have full confidence in the quality and performance of our optical glass parts, and our detailed test reports help to achieve that.If you need test reports for your optical glass order, please let us know when placing your order, and our team will provide you with the required documentation.

What quality control standards do you follow for optical glass products?

At Felix Glass, we follow strict quality control standards for all BK7 and K9 optical glass products to ensure consistent quality and reliable performance for our customers. Our quality control process covers every stage of production, from raw material inspection to final product testing.Our quality control standards are based on international specifications, including ISO and DIN standards for optical glass. Before production, all raw materials are inspected for optical and physical properties, including refractive index, dispersion, transmittance, and chemical composition, to ensure they meet the required specifications.During production, we conduct in-process inspections to monitor dimensional accuracy, surface quality, and processing consistency. This includes checking the size, shape, and flatness of the parts using precision measuring equipment such as coordinate measuring machines (CMM) and interferometers. We also inspect the surface finish of the parts to ensure they are free from scratches, pits, and other defects that could affect optical performance.After processing, all optical glass parts undergo a comprehensive final inspection, including dimensional verification, surface quality inspection, and optical performance testing. For coated parts, we also test the coating thickness, uniformity, adhesion, and transmittance/reflectance to ensure they meet the specified requirements.Our optical performance testing includes measuring the visible light transmittance, refractive index, and dispersion of the parts using spectrophotometers and refractometers. We also test the parts for resistance to environmental factors such as temperature and humidity to ensure they maintain their performance under different conditions.All our quality control processes are documented, and we provide detailed inspection reports with each order, including test results and specifications verification. This gives our customers full visibility into the quality of their products and ensures they meet the required standards.At Felix Glass, we are committed to delivering high-quality optical glass parts that meet or exceed our customers' expectations. Our strict quality control standards ensure that every product we manufacture is reliable, consistent, and fit for purpose. If you have specific quality requirements for your project, please contact our team for more information.