Electro Forming

• Throughout our history, we have developed and sold technology to major manufacturers for the replication of optical molds.

• NiPro is the only company to successfully deliver inserts for the injection molding of polycarbonate lenses using electroformed ophthlalmic molds.

• Using newly developed  3 axis (slow servo) diamond turning equipment, our company was a leader in the adoption of this breakthrough technology to cut free formed surfaces on finished inserts for polycarbonate injection molding.

• NiPro adapted the use of electronic stress devices and solid state programmable power supplies to the plating of electroformed ophthalmic molds, setting the industry standard for controlled radius and cylinder.

• Using our Diamond Turning Center, we  pioneered the use of ultra precision mandrels for replicating nickel reflectors – the increased form accuracy provides many unique benefits to our customers.   NiPro introduced “Digital Reflectors” in 2011, obsoleting polished steel mandrels as old technology.

Thin Film Coating

• One of our first unique accomplishments was the development of a proprietary Enhanced Rhodium coating, improving on the current art and establishing NiPro as a leading edge designer of vacuum deposited optical thin films.

• Challenged to provide a viable alternative to silver for applications needing superior reflectance AND the ability to withstand harsh environmental conditions, we designed a new, proprietary Durable Aluminum coating.  Designed primarily for diamond turned substrates, this coating is salt fog tested for verifiable results, and should be considered when life cycle metrics are paramount.

• Our planetary tooling design for coating allows a reflector to rotate on its axis (tilted for the best “line of sight” angle) while also rotating around the entire inside of the chamber.  This allows our coatings to deposit evenly (360 degrees) for all diameters and sizes.

• NiPro customizes tooling to match different reflector geometry, enabling our spectrometer to check reflectivity at a zero degree angle.  This configuration provides consistent and repeatable measurements.

Electro Forming

• NiPro customizes tooling to match different reflector geometry, enabling our spectrometer to check reflectivity at a zero degree angle.  This configuration provides consistent and repeatable measurements.