In digital cameras, various precision components are used and assembled with high accuracy. The most important of all, the optical lens, exist as the central component.
The glass material used for photographic lens is especially called "optical glass". It is the uniformed quality glass with optical function and high transparency. There are more than 200 variations of optical glasses designed for different optical properties such as "refractive index" and "dispersion index".
Optical lens is typically produced through process of rough shearing, fine grinding, and polishing, from a lens material which is moulded to a predetermined size including the cut portion.
HOYA, the top provider of optical glasses, has recently developed new optical glass material process called "NRP".
"This is the optical lens used in digital cameras. Conventionally, the optical lens was processed from this type of material. In this case, more than the half of its glass material had been discarded by cutting away. This time, by using the new NRP process that HOYA has developed, it is possible to process the same lens from this thin material, which is expected to significantly reduces energy and rare earth elements used in optical glass material," said Mikio Hatta, Optical Materials SBU, Hoya Corporation.
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NRP improves lens material shape accuracy, surface defects less than 1/3rd and the thickness variation accuracy has improved 5 times over the current company standard.
It could significantly reduce the allowance of polishing lens and reduce the processing fluctuation.
The raw material for optical glass varies by the type of lenses.
The glass raw material is formulated from high purity mineral such as silica, boric acid, alumina, barium carbonate and lanthanum oxide.
HOYA have been developing optical grass material to achieve higher-performance, high image quality with smaller, lightweight lenses.
Japanese firms are not only using cutting edge technology to make products, but also keep the environment safe as their priority.
Recently, Tokyo Big Sight convention center organised an exhibition called "Eco-Products", which features environmental technologies and environmentally-friendly products and services.
Exhibitors include a number of both well-established and emerging companies in manufacturing and retail industries in Japan.
It is a unique opportunity to efficiently gather information on innovations in the area of environment.
This POS system by TOSHIBA can scan the object itself, not bar code. It directly recognizes vegetables then sellers can decrease packages and bar code labels. This system received the award for the prevention of global warming.
AJINOMOTO spares no effort in improving their products. They tried to change the material of the package of the soup stock powder, their signature product.
The cap of the product is made from 90 per cent biomass material which used to be petroleum based material.
"There are a lot of children coming to this exhibition every year. So we try to exhibit in an easy-to-understand way in order to impress children the importance of the environment, energy saving and energy storage," said Elly Yoshikawa, Kyocera Corporation.
Kyocera focuses on LED lighting. They adopted purple LED chip and succeeded in duplicating natural sunlight.
They exhibit several materials such as flower and fruits in what they call "LED tunnel". Visitors can see the difference between general LED light and KYOCERA's LED light and it looks obvious.
Their LED light is used in the medical field. This is the light used for operation because its high colour reproducibility is helpful in operation.
