Fastening Optical Elements with Adhesives

Level: Intermediate Length: 4 hours Format: In-Person Lecture Intended Audience: This course is for engineers, managers, and technicians. This course provides a foundation for the correct design for successful optical mounting; an understanding of the best options to employ for each application, and the selection and approach conducive to production. A bound course outline (that is a good reference text) is provided, including summaries of popular adhesives and their properties. Description: Optomechanical systems require secure mounting of optical elements. Adhesives are commonly used, but rarely addressed in the literature. This course has compiled an overview of these adhesives, their properties, and how to test them. How to use them is addressed in detail with guidelines and examples provided. A summary of common adhesives is presented with justification for their use. Consideration and analysis of adhesive strength, reliability, and stability are included. Different design approaches to optimize the application are presented and discussed. Many examples are described as well as lessons learned from past experience. Discussions are encouraged to address current problems of course attendees. Learning Outcomes: This course will enable you to: - describe and classify adhesives and how they work (epoxy, urethane, silicone, acrylic, RTV, VU-cure, etc.) - create and use an adhesive check list - recognize contamination/outgassing and how to avoid it - review design options - obtain guidance in: adhesive selection, surface preparation, application, and curing - develop a basis for analysis of stress and thermal effects Instructor(s): John G. Daly has 35 years of experience in lasers and optomechanics. Over this period, he has worked optical bonding problems since his thesis projects, as an employee of several major corporations, and now as a consultant. His academic background in mechanical engineering and applied physics compliments this discipline. His work experience has been diverse covering areas such as: military lasers, medical lasers, spectroscopy, point and standoff detection, and E-O systems. His roles over these years have included analysis, design, development, and production. He is an SPIE member, with numerous publications, and is a committee member of the SPIE Optomechanical Engineering Program. Event: SPIE Optics + Photonics 2019 Course Held: 13 August 2019