High Quality Customized Optical Powell Prism for Medical Instruments

Powell lens
Powell lens is a quantum leap forward in line generator performance over the simple cylinder lens. A cylinder lens produces a poorly illuminated line, one limited by the non-uniform, Gaussian laser beam. The Powell lens' rounded roof is in fact a complex two-dimensional aspheric curve that generates a tremendous amount of spherical aberration that redistributes the light along the line; decreasing the light in the central area while increasing the light level at the line's ends. The result is a very uniformly illuminated line used in all manner of machine vision applications; from bio-medical and automobile assembly to chocolate chip cookie production.

The Powell lens performance and physical characteristics are driven by the beam width. The most significant differences being the diverging fan's foot print on the flat exit face that serves as the mounting surface. Care must be taken to ensure that mounting hardware does not clip the diverging light.

The Powell lens resembles a round prism with a curved roof line. The lens is a laser line generator, stretching a narrow laser beam into a uniformly illuminated straight line