Capabilities · 04

Rapid Prototyping

First articles on the schedule your program actually keeps — with the physics-honest reasons why.

Capability 04

Two Weeks, Because the Queue Is Ours

Fast prototypes aren't magic — they're vertical integration. Blanks, fabrication, coating, and metrology under one roof means your first article never waits in another company's queue.

Lane	Typical Delivery	Scope	Best For
Standard Prototype	3 – 4 weeks	1–10 pcs, stock material, standard coatings	Design validation, first articles
Expedite	As fast as 2 weeks	1–5 pcs, in-stock substrate, catalog coating	Program-critical demonstrations
Critical / AOG	Quoted case-by-case	Single pieces, dedicated machine time	Line-down and fielded-system failures
Bridge Production	Rolling	Short runs while volume tooling ramps	Keeping integration lines fed

Deliveries assume material in stock (we hold ZnSe, Ge, Si, fused silica). Exotic melts, large blanks, and custom filter coatings add their own lead times — we quote the truth, not the wish.

What Makes Prototypes Fast — or Slow

An Engineer's Honest List

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Speeds It Up

Diamond-turnable materials (Ge, ZnSe, chalcogenide)
Catalog coating bands (1064 nm, 10.6 µm, 3–5, 8–12 µm)
Tolerances from our Standard column
Diameters 10–100 mm — inside every machine's sweet spot
A STEP file plus a one-page spec — not a 40-page SOW

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Slows It Down

Sapphire and large CaF₂ (slow material removal, thermal care)
Custom narrow bandpass filters (witness runs included)
λ/10 with 10-5 on soft crystals — possible, not fast
Serialized flight documentation on a one-off
Undefined AOI/polarization on coating specs — we must ask

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Every first article ships with engineering feedback: what measured where, which tolerances were comfortable, which were tight, and what we would change before production. A prototype that teaches nothing is half wasted.

Need It in Two Weeks?

Send the drawing today and we'll confirm the lane, the date, and the price by tomorrow.

Start an Expedite