Coatings applied to the surface of a substrate alter the wavelengths of light measured in terms of reflection, refraction, absorptions, abrasion resistance, anti-glare, or electrical conductivity. Whether your goal is to prevent glare on your display, create image projection, or to control specific UV rays or conductivity, Abrisa offers over 50 types of specialty coatings and finishes to produce the desired results. By understanding the expected performance specifications, our application experience gives us unsurpassed OEM capabilities which enable us to meet your project’s parameters.
ZC&R Coatings for Optics, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Abrisa, is fully equipped to provide in-house coating design, comprehensive testing, and production in low, high, and OEM quantities. Our extensive line of coatings includes numerous standard and off-the-shelf products, as well as many unique custom designed filters and coatings. Standard coatings include transparent conductive films for electronics applications, heat and wavelength control for industrial and commercial applications, and high efficiency anti-reflection coatings for optical applications. Please visit this website to view Abrisa’s expanded repertoire of coating solutions through ZC&R: www.zcrcoatings.com or call ZC&R directly at 800-426-2864 for more information.
TYPES OF COATINGS
This list will give you a brief idea of the function of different coatings or filters. Your product may require a combination of coatings to achieve your performance goals. Should you require consultation for your project, our Engineering Department and Sales Team are available to help determine the most effective way to reach those goals.
ANTI-FOG
This is a water-based, permanent coating, typically used for surface anti-fog coating of glass materials. The anti-fogging agents prevent the condensation of water on the surface of glass. These coatings are often used in optics such as lenses and mirrors found in glasses, goggles, cameras, binoculars, automotive, and rugged environments.
ANTI-REFLECTIVE (A / R)
Anti-reflective coatings are a type of optical coating used to reduce glare and reflection, improve the brightness of transmitted images or light beams, or to improve the contrast of an image. Usually the amount of light transmission required is specified in terms of levels of IR, visible, or UV light. This coating is important in planetary astronomy instrumentation and other instrumentation, eye wear, display panels including ATMs and kiosks, gauges, military and medical scopes, and automotive applications.
BEAM SPLITTERS
A beam splitter is an optical device that splits a beam of light in two. It uses dichroic optical coatings to split incoming light, reflecting some and allowing transmission of some. A typical percentage is 40% reflection, with 60% transmission. Common uses are projection equipment, movie cameras, and teleprompters.
COLD MIRROR
Cold Mirrors are designed to reflect visible light and pass infrared (heat).
COLOR TEMPERATURE CORRECTORS
Abrisa has an exhaustive listing of materials to control color temperature. These are commonly used in stage, entertainment, fashion and accent lighting.
CONTRAST ENHANCING FILTERS
These filters are available in three categories: Monochromatic, Full Color, and Multi-Peak Full Color filters for specific requirements of light transmission.
DICHROIC FILTERS
Dichroic filters transmit light of certain colors and reflect its complementary colors. They are designed to reflect unwanted light instead of absorbing the energy, resulting in a much cooler filter. This makes dichroic filters a superior choice when working with high intensity light sources. The applications are widespread; from architectural lighting, entertainment and stage lighting, to very precise band pass filters for electronics and industrial applications.
FRONT SURFACE MIRROR
This is a special glass with a mirror coating on the front surface of the glass. These can meet specific reflectivity, flatness, thickness requirements. Additional coatings such as Anti-reflective coatings may also be applied. These mirrors are primarily used in rear projection display applications, television, photography, as well as special applications in the optical field.
HOT MIRROR
Hot Mirrors are designed to attenuate the infrared (IR) wavelengths of the spectrum while transmitting visible light. They can also be designed to control specific UV wavelengths. These are often used to protect optical systems by reflecting heat back into the light source, when heat transmission could damage components.
INDIUM TIN-OXIDE (ITO)
Used for electrical conductivity and anti-static, this coating is made from a mixture of Indium Oxide and Tin Oxide. ITO’s main feature is the combination of electrical conductivity, typically expressed in ohms per square, and optical transparency. ITO is mainly used to make transparent conductive coatings for LCDs, flat panel displays, plasma displays, touch panels, solar cells, anti-static coatings and EMI shielding. ITO is also used for various optical coatings, mostly infrared-reflecting coatings (Hot Mirrors) for architectural, automotive, and A/R coatings.
NEUTRAL DENSITY FILTERS
Neutral Gray Filters (Neutral Density Filters) are used to reduce transmission and increase contrast. They filter light at all visible spectrum wavelengths equally (color neutral),
OPTIVEX™ UV BLOCKING FILTERS
Abrisa offers several solutions to achieve control of UV energy and reduce exposure to harmful UV rays. The Optivex™ UV Blocking is one of the most effective UV transmission blockers and allows high visible light transmission and color. Many useful applications include light systems in museums, art galleries, store windows where UV light can deteriorate fabrics and other materials, or fade colors. Abrisa has exclusive distributorship of this registered filter.
TYPES OF FINISHES
NON-GLARE GLASS
This is chemically treated glass to achieve specific degrees of glare reduction. See also GLARE REDUCTION under the GLASS GUIDE section.
WHITE FLASHED OPAL
This product is clear base glass with a thin layer of white glass used to diffuse light.
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