PrismMaster^®

For years, the PrismMaster^® Series has been one of the most accurate and versatile product lines on the market dedicated to angular measurements of prisms, polygons, and many other optical components.

This innovative concept is based on our firm belief that angular measurements of prisms, wedge plates, and polygons can be much simpler and more efficient and that the potential for significant improvements in the measurement accuracy is far from being exhausted.

Already in 1997, TRIOPTICS replaced visual measurement with more objective and precise electronic measurement for the first time in the optical industry. Therefore, the visual autocollimators were replaced with electronic autocollimators in all PrismMaster^® instruments.

Another highlight of the concept was simple, like any great innovation: the classical, but complicated rotation of the measuring head, tiresome and difficult for the operator, was eliminated. It was an obvious and simple idea to replace it by the rotation of the sample table which can be easily automated using a motorized drive and appropriate software.

The advantages of the new concept in terms of accuracy and handling quickly convinced our customers:

• Significant increase in measurement accuracy due to the use of electronic autocollimators
• Elimination of subjective operator error during the the visual adjustment of the test sample
• Very short measurement times and simple operation (no rotation of the measurement head under continuous operator monitoring)
• Simple automation of measurement processes

These basic components of the new concept were complemented by a comprehensive but clearly designed new software package. This allowed TRIOPTICS to pursue the ambitious goal of replacing the complicated adjustment and measurement steps, which only professional operators were able to control by a simple and automated procedure.

Already with the first version of the software (over 10 years ago), the most important goals were consistently achieved.

• The precise, time-consuming alignment of the prism surfaces toward the axis of the autocollimator was eliminated. This did not just save a work-intensive measurement step, but meant that measurement accuracy no longer depended on that alignment and the operator's qualification.
• The precise tilt adjustment of the test sample to the autocollimator was no longer necessary: the tilt of the test sample was automatically measured and automatically compensated by the software. The tiltable table is now needed only for the alignment of test samples with extremely slanted surfaces.
• Pyramidal errors can be measured quickly and accurately without laborious adjustment of the surfaces of the prism.

Building on the extensive TRIOPTICS experience in this field, taking in consideration new impulses and many ideas of our customers, the PrismMaster^® software was further developed and equipped with new and unique features.

The latest generation of the software, PrismMaster^® 3, combines unique special knowledge of angular and refraction index measurements with modern software architecture. We provide every customer a solution custom-tailored to their specific needs that contributes to the optimization of the measurement procedure.

Analyzing the development of the market for angular measurements on optical components over the past few years, it is clear that the PrismMaster^® product series and the modern product concept behind it are an overwhelming success: The PrismMaster^® series is the first of its class anywhere in the world, and the product name PrismMaster^® has become a synonym for precision goniometers.