How TechniQuip Engineered a Precision Lighting Solution Where Standard Microscopy Lighting Failed

Jim Bristol, a microscopist at McCrone and Associates in Chicago , has over 30 years of experience putting together optical solutions for the industry. But this time he had a problem — turns out a very, very small problem. His client needed to image the interior of minute vertical blind holes using basic Greenough methods. Jim’s real challenge started when one of his key vendors had narrowed its product line and dropped the instrument needed for this application, leaving Jim to search for a new lighting solution.

Pure coaxial lighting was not viable due to the optical path created by the tilted optical tubes in the Greenough microscope. Traditional lighting solutions, such as LED ring lights or fluorescent ring lights, were of no use, as none of those illumination sources present rays of light that are coaxial to the main microscope objective.

That’s when Jim reached out to TechniQuip and laid out the problem and his project needs. After just a few emails, TechniQuip went to work, engineered a solution, and a few weeks later, Jim had a fully functioning prototype of a new form of blind-hole illuminator to take to his customer.

The new solution was mounted on a Greenough microscope, and its components carefully avoided the optical path.

Light is generated by an LED capable of over 1300 lumens. This light is then carefully sent through an optical tube that contains apertures and three precision-ground and coated lenses. The lenses ensure that maximum optical energy is directed across a short gap to strike a mirror, which floods the blind hole with light and makes high-quality imaging of interior features possible. To continue scaling capabilities, TechniQuip designed and built a second version that can be powered via a fiber optic cable attached to a fiber optic illuminator.

Jim’s experience was typical of what TechniQuip engages in literally hundreds of times each year—solving very specific—and often challenging—lighting problems for clients in microscopy, metrology, surgery, and other fields.