Improved performance with military durability
A recent visit to this year’s SHOT Show revealed that getting IR thermal coatings on sights for crossbows, rifles, range finders, and spotting scopes can be done without shipping to China. For companies concerned about scope performance and accuracy, partnering with an appropriate IR coating facility can mean the difference in offering a standard or excellent scope performance. ATN, Sightmark, and Pulsar offer highly rated scopes designed for legal night hunting of coyotes, varmints, and wild hogs that utilize IR thermal sight technology as well as digital images, Bluetooth connectivity, and range finder functionality. Not only can today’s scopes save image information, but they also offer built-in radar for tagging and mapping and ballistic calculators. Today’s technology is dizzying, so why not also provide the best IR coating for the best possible image accuracy.
Made in America
This term is used loosely within the huge market for consumer IR thermal sights. A good percentage of coatings are currently done overseas, with the sight assembly done in the USA. To save shipping time and increase reliability, performance, and durability, coatings that are done at AccuCoat can be completed to MIL-SPEC on Germanium, Chalcogenide, and other IR materials for a value-added edge for consumers.
The best sights use the best coatings
As a part of the SHOT Show, our thin film coating engineer confirmed that the higher-end IR thermal sights included higher quality types of coatings for buyers of these sights. Working with a facility such as AccuCoat that offers optical coating design support can give you options that may not have been considered, save R&D time to market, and offer quick prototyping with additional smaller runs for testing.
Designed for human eyes, not lasers, IR thermal sights are used for night hunting and can be used in total darkness. Fog, rain, and high humidity can limit the range, and clear skies and perfect weather allow for increased accuracy. Thermal imaging for defense requires deeper levels of performance in field conditions and is paired with a camera system for surveillance, missiles, Cassegrain telescopes, and thermal goggles, to list just a few. Consumer IR sights are designed to be used mounted in the scope of a crossbow or rifle and do not require a camera or laser light source.
Improving optical performance for less
With our ability to coat optic materials, such as germanium, in high volumes without overseas shipping snafus, your company could save on time and overhead by switching to a USA coating provider, such as AccuCoat. Although IR coatings are not applicable for plastic material, we do offer AR field-friendly, highly-durable coatings on plastic optics.
Infrared optic materials
In addition to coating on germanium, AccuCoat precisely coats on silicon, Zinc Selenide, CleartranTM, and many types of Chalcogenides. A complete list of our IR materials is available here. IR materials require a specific process in order to coat successfully, and we have experience in optical design and manufacturing, including military projects meeting additional specifications and complexity.
AccuCoat is a world-class coating facility in Rochester, NY, with an 11,000 sqft facility that includes test labs, offices, and coating chambers. We offer beamsplitters, dichroic and metal mirrors, filter coatings, and IR/AR coatings. We invite you to find out more about our standard and custom-designed IR thermal coatings to fit your needs.