The innovative and competitive inspection system brings extended depth of focus microscopy thanks to its MALS™ Technology to new market segments.
Oberkochen, Germany | 27 January 2022 | ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions
ZEISS and Vision Engineering, a British leading designer and manufacturer of high-quality non-contact measurement, digital 3D visualization, and ergonomic inspection technologies, have partnered up to make real-time extended depth of focus imaging available for more customer groups. DeepFocus 1 combines the ZEISS Visioner 1 digital microscope with Micro-mirror Array Lens System (MALS™) with Vision Engineering’s technical and design expertise. The attractive technology package,combined with the reach of ZEISS’ distributor community, and Vision Engineering’s own sales network will allow more users to benefit from creating instant ‘all-in-focus” images.
Instant all-in-focus images thanks to ZEISS MALS™ Technology
Conventional inspection systems are challenged by a shallow depth of field, especially at high magnification. As a result, only a small area of the sample is in focus, which can lead to features being overlooked and the inspection being incomplete as a result. Extensive refocusing to obtain an extended depth of field, or post-processing, is a solution to this problem, but can be time-consuming and complex. However, thanks to its unique MALS™ Technology, ZEISS Visioner 1 enables the user to see the sample completely in focus in real-time, without the need to Z-stack and post-process a series of images. The key to this is the namesake system with an array of micro-mirrors that can generate “virtual” lenses with distinctly different curvatures and thus focus planes, by changing the orientation of each individual micro-mirror in an orchestrated way. This allows optical inspection for height differences of up to 69mm with an up to 100 times greater depth of focus than that of a conventional microscope, which not only makes the inspection task easier, but also much quicker, saving significant amounts of time. The result is a more efficient failure analysis and quality control process with fast and accurate results. Another part of the DeepFocus 1 package from ZEISS’ side is the powerful ZEN core imaging software suite.
Vision Engineering ensures ergonomic design, opens up new market segments
Vision Engineering offers customers the ability to configure DeepFocus 1 based on their specific need, with a bench stand, multi-axis stand, or as an advanced inspection workstation in the EVOTIS configuration. Thanks to its 60 years of experience in designing and manufacturing high-quality inspection and measuring systems, the company stands for optimal viewing ergonomics and for improving customer quality and productivity. Thanks to Vision Engineering’s expansive sales network, DeepFocus 1 opens up new market segments to be reached with the innovative Visioner 1 and its benefits.
The company first showcased the fruit of the collaboration during the Productronica trade fair in November 2021.
A collaboration benefitting ZEISS, Vision Engineering, and customers alike
Dr. Robert Zarnetta, Head of Business Unit Industrial Microscopy Solutions at ZEISS, is happy about the collaboration: “With the unique MALS™ Technology in the Visioner 1 digital microscope, we offer customers a way to greatly increase their productivity and efficiency during their quality assurance and optical inspection. With its extensive experience, our partner Vision Engineering embeds this in an attractive package that I am sure will convince a lot of new customers.”
Mark Curtis, Managing Director at Vision Engineering, agrees: “We at Vision Engineering have been offering our customers state-of-the-art solutions for their measuring and inspection tasks for a long time. Through this partnership with ZEISS, we continue this tradition with DeepFocus 1, utilizing the best technology available for real-time extended depth of focus. Thanks to our strong ties to our global customer community, we are delighted to partner with ZEISS to make this great solution become even more widespread – a clear win-win situation.”
Press Contact
Bernd Balle
ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions
Phone: +49 7364 20-8148
bernd.balle@zeiss.com
About ZEISS
ZEISS is an internationally leading technology enterprise operating in the fields of optics and optoelectronics. In the previous fiscal year, the ZEISS Group generated annual revenue totaling 7.5 billion euros in its four segments Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology, Industrial Quality & Research, Medical Technology and Consumer Markets (status: 30 September 2021).
For its customers, ZEISS develops, produces and distributes highly innovative solutions for industrial metrology and quality assurance, microscopy solutions for the life sciences and materials research, and medical technology solutions for diagnostics and treatment in ophthalmology and microsurgery. The name ZEISS is also synonymous with the world’s leading lithography optics, which are used by the chip industry to manufacture semiconductor components. There is global demand for trendsetting ZEISS brand products such as eyeglass lenses, camera lenses and binoculars.
With a portfolio aligned with future growth areas like digitalization, healthcare and Smart Production and a strong brand, ZEISS is shaping the future of technology and constantly advancing the world of optics and related fields with its solutions. The company’s significant, sustainable investments in research and development lay the foundation for the success and continued expansion of ZEISS’ technology and market leadership. ZEISS invests 13 percent of its revenue in research and development – this high level of expenditure has a long tradition at ZEISS and is also an investment in the future.
With over 35,000 employees, ZEISS is active globally in almost 50 countries with around 30 production sites, 60 sales and service companies and 27 research and development facilities. Founded in 1846 in Jena, the company is headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany. The Carl Zeiss Foundation, one of the largest foundations in Germany committed to the promotion of science, is the sole owner of the holding company, Carl Zeiss AG.
Further information at www.zeiss.com
ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions
ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions is a leading manufacturer of multidimensional metrology solutions. These include coordinate measuring machines, optical and multisensor systems, microscopy systems for industrial quality assurance as well as metrology software for the automotive, aircraft, mechanical engineering, plastics and medical technology industries. Innovative technologies such as 3D X-ray metrology for quality inspection round off the portfolio. In addition, ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions offers a broad global spectrum of customer services with ZEISS Quality Excellence Centers close to its customers. The company is headquartered in Oberkochen. Production and development sites outside Germany are located in Minneapolis in the USA, Shanghai (China) and Bangalore (India). ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions is part of the Industrial Quality & Research segment.
