In This Issue
- 8th Annual Golf Tournament !!!!
- ITAR & EAR (If you have to ask,
you still need to know)
- Dynasil Completes Another Acquisition
- Optics Express Picking Up Steam
- University of Rochester
Institute of Optics Summer Institute Wrap-up
- New Product Announcements
- Conferences
ITAR & EAR Compliance
Register, Monitor and Cross Your Fingers
45 people joined the RRPC at the Lennox Tech Center on Thursday, June
19th for a presentation about EAR, ITAR, immigration and export compliance.
The FBI, CIA and BICE shared insights and experiences of those who have
successfully (and not so successfully) navigated the various processes
required for registering, establishing secure procedures and figuring
out if the Department of Commerce and the State Department are in agreement
concerning dual-use, military and police-use products.
Attendees ran the gamut from those with sophisticated ITAR and security
procedures in place, to those who are beginning to think about registering.
What we learned:
- The rules change from week to week and month to month. One day Libya
is our enemy, the next day the State Department allows the shipment
of military items to Libya because they are now our friends.
- The Department of Commerce may try to help you by approving you under
EAR-99, but the State Department may still refuse your permit to ship.
- The bureaucrats who are reviewing your application are by no means
experts. They are overworked and overburdened by the application process.
They try to keep up with the regulations (like you do) and may not have
a clue what the device, component or subassembly is that they are reviewing.
This adds to the time you must wait for a decision, and may result in
a "best-guess" on whether you are able to make a sale and
ship a product.
What to do?
- Review as much of the documentation on-line as you can. The regulations
change, so having a hard copy of the regulations adds a high degree
of likelihood that your copy is out of date.
- Go to the NUNN-WOLFOWITZ
TASK FORCE REPORT to review an itemized list of what you need to
do for export compliance.
- Review Export Control News & Alerts here.
- Check out this recent (May 23, 2007) presentation by State Department
Officials David Trimble, Director, and Daniel Cook, Senior Compliance
Specialist, concerning Defense Trade Controls Compliance. It is available
here.
It is likely to be what we would have seen had they been able to join
us.
The OSA is considering a special ITAR compliance workshop during Frontiers
in Optics in Rochester this October. The Rochester International Business
Council (IBC) is considering one in Rochester this fall as well. Lori
DeRoller from the IBC attended an ITAR workshop held during the Defense
& Security Conference in Orlando this past March.
Just to give you an idea of how overburdened the State Department is,
we are still waiting to hear from them on our invitation to join us on
June 19th!
Includes reporting from Esther Heller, JML Optical
Industries and Carol Corey, Sydor Optics
QED Announces New Product
QED Technologies (QED), provider of Magnetorheological Finishing (MRF®)
and Subaperture Stitching Interferometry (SSI®), announced the release
of its new SSI-A®, the company's latest metrology tool for aspheres.
The new product expands the capabilities of QED’s metrology product,
first introduced in 2004, to include full aperture measurement of aspheres
with more than 200 waves (120 microns) of departure from best fit sphere,
without the use of null lenses. This contrasts to just a few waves of
aspheric departure for standard interferometers. Combining all of the
advantages of the SSI®, for bigger or steeper optics metrology, the
new SSI-A® incorporates an enhanced stitching engine that provides
improved measurement accuracy over a broad range of aspheres. The new
metrology system is also capable of taking full aperture measurements
of spheres and flat surfaces.
“This new release is the next step in QED’s product development
roadmap", said Marc Tricard, Director of Business Development for
QED. “QED strives to simplify optics manufacturing even as complexity,
volume and quality demands in optics system designs become more challenging.
We want manufacturers and end users to have confidence that their final
product will be right on specification, reliably and consistently. This
new SSI-A® is a flexible, easy to use yet powerful tool that serves
optics manufacturers for both in-line and final metrology inspection of
aspheres, spheres and flat surfaces.”
New Scale Awarded New Patent
New Scale Technologies was awarded its fourth U.S. patent for its piezoelectric
SQUIGGLE motors and optical lens systems. The new patent covers a thinner
SQUIGGLE motor and co-axial moving optics module used to create low-profile
micro cameras.
This latest patent covers New Scale's SQUIGGLE motor embodiments in
two areas:
- A SQUIGGLE motor design that is a planar instead of a tubular form.
This shorter and flatter motor design was created to fit into lower-profile
assemblies where height must be minimized.
- An optical module design that integrates lens assemblies inside hollow
threaded shafts in the thin SQUIGGLE motor. The optical and motor centerlines
are co-incident and the lens assemblies move axially to create a short
and compact focus and zoom optical system. Designs for both rotating
and non-rotating optics are described.
US patent # 7,339,306 was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
on March 4, 2008 to inventor David Henderson. It is a continuation-in-part
of Henderson's fundamental SQUIGGLE motor patent #6,940,209 issued September
2005.
"This latest patent covers unique embodiments of SQUIGGLE motor
technology that enable innovative form factors for micro digital cameras,"
stated David Henderson, New Scale's founder and co-CEO. "It delivers
significant advantages over voice coil motors currently used in these
systems, and further demonstrates our team's capability to deliver customized
motion module solutions."
Events and Conferences
APOMA Workshop in November, 2008
The APOMA board has approved a 2 day workshop to be held in Tucson,
AZ this November 17th & 18th at the new Optical Science building at
the University of Arizona. The workshop will cover a variety of topics
on optical fabrication such as Scratch Dig, diamonds, testing, optical
tolerances, pitch and polishing pads, presentations by optical machine
builders on the latest equipment, and much more.
According to Jim Sydor, current APOMA President, "The goal is to
run the workshop in different parts of the country every other year so
as not conflict with OPTIFAB. Once the agenda is finalized we will post
it on the APOMA website."
SPIE
Optics & Photonics
10 - 14 August, 2008
San Diego, California
OSA
Annual Frontiers in Optics 2008
19 - 23 October, 2008
Rochester, NY
Riverside Convention Center
Photonics
West
24 - 29 January, 2009
San Jose, California
Defense,
Security & Sensing
13 - 17 April, 2009
Orlando World Center
Orlando, Florida
Optifab
Call for Papers, July, 2008
11
- 14 May, 2009
Rochester, NY
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Annual Golf Tourrney
Still Room for Another Few Golfers and Sponsors!
The 8th annual WNY Photonics Golf Tournament will be held on July 17th
at Shadow Lake and Shadow Pines Golf Clubs in Penfield NY.
The lamest excuse we've heard for not participating in the Tournament
is, "I don't golf!" Anyone who has participated during the past
eight years will verify that neither do 90% of the participants.
Last year's event raised $14,500 for a total thusfar of $43K to benefit
the Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong. Participation from WNY photonics
companies, their suppliers and friends, as well as companies from as far
away as Opto Sigma in California made the event a success.
Contact Ron or Dianne Schulmerich at wnyoptics@rochester.rr.com or (585)
663-7230 if you are interested in participating in the Optics Industry's
largest networking event of the year.
Registration and sponsorship forms are here.
It's time to stop delaying. The Tournament is next week!
Dynasil Completes Another Acquisition
Dynasil Corporation of America (OTCBB: DYSL.OB) announced on July 2nd
that it had acquired the stock of Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc. and
specific assets of RMD Instruments, LLC which are advanced instruments
companies located near Boston. 
The purchase price totaled approximately $20 million including $12.5
million of cash and 4.6 million shares of Dynasil common stock. 2007 revenues
for RMD exceeded $20 million. In order to finance the acquisitions, Dynasil
completed a $9 million bank term loan at a 6% annual interest rate and
issued approximately $5 million of 10% Cumulative Convertible Preferred
Stock that is convertible at a $2.50 per share price. Dynasil Chairman
James Saltzman stated: "Adding RMD is a transformational event for
Dynasil. We expect that it will more than triple our revenues and profits
while our shares outstanding only approximately double, which should make
it immediately accretive. It also brings us some exciting products as
well as extensive technological capability that we expect will drive our
future growth."
Prior to these acquisitions, Dynasil had grown from an unprofitable
company with only $2 million of revenues in FY 2004 to a solidly profitable
$11 million company in FY 2007 by executing the growth and process improvement
strategy initiated by Craig Dunham, who joined Dynasil as President and
CEO in October, 2004. Dynasil is a manufacturer of photonic products including
optical materials, components, coatings and specialized instruments with
operations in New Jersey, Massachusetts and upstate New York that supply
a range of niche markets within technical optics. "RMD is an attractive
addition on a number of levels," remarked Dunham. "It has a
history of strong cash flow; it adds scale and extensive technology capabilities
to our business portfolio; and it has exciting growth potential."
RMD is comprised of two business entities, one which performs research
under government contracts such as SBIRs while the other manufactures
and sells photonics related instruments and components. RMD products have
high growth potential and are sold into the medical imaging, environmental
sensing and quality control instrumentation markets. These products include
hand-held x-ray fluorescence analyzers for lead paint and RoHS compliance;
medical probes for cancer surgery that can dramatically reduce the number
of lymph nodes removed for biopsy; a camera that integrates a visual picture
with radioactive material detection for Homeland Security and nuclear
waste cleanup applications; avalanche photodiodes for applications including
medical imaging; and very high performance scintilator imaging screens
for digital radiography. The company, with a staff that includes 38 PhDs,
has a significant research and development team that contracts with the
National Institute of Health, the Department of Energy, the Department
of Defense, NASA, NSF, the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and the Department
of Homeland Security.
Former RMD owners, Dr. Gerald Entine and Mr. Jack Paster, are now major
Dynasil shareholders and will stay with the company. Dr. Gerald Entine
stated: "Being part of the Dynasil organization fits with RMD's continued
emphasis on commercializing the new technological developments arising
from its research efforts, especially our substantial set of recently
issued patents on inventions ranging from improved scintilators for nuclear
detectors directed towards homeland security, and medical imaging applications,
high performance optical detectors for medical and space requirements
and magnetic sensors arrays for non-destructive testing."
Dynasil has acquired two other companies and a product line during the
last three years and has delivered significant performance improvements
at all three of its business units. "Adding RMD is a major step in
executing Dynasil's profitable growth strategy. We plan to apply our skills
in effective execution to build on their strong cash flow and accelerate
the growth of their current products as well as commercialize new technology,"
said Mr. Dunham. Dynasil's strategy and performance is available in its
10K-SB annual report which was released on December 19, 2007 and is available
for viewing at www.Dynasil.com
Cartel Outing Raises Money for Optics Express
Optimax, which hosted the Glass Cartel baseball outing at Frontier Field
in May, has donated the proceeds to help underwrite the cost of developing
the business plan for the Optics Express.
"Optimax has a demonstrated commitment to education and job training,"
said Rick Plympton, Optimax CEO. "Every company that participated
in the Night Out With The Redwings will be hiring during the next year.
The Mission of the Optics Express is to attract young people to Optics
and Physics. We are all going to need those young people in the future
if Rochester is going to compete in the global economy."
The event raised around $600 above the cost for tickets, food and beverages
and Optimax kicked in the balance to make a contribution totaling $1,000
from the event.
To date RRPC board members have contributed $1,000 each toward the development
costs of the Optics Express, with additonal contributions by John Herbrand
Esq. and The Rivers Organization of $250 each.
47th Annual Summer School Program
The University of Rochester Institute of Optics concluded its annual
summer school program on June 27th. 120 attendees came from all over North
America, including New Mexico, Minnesota, Canada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
California, and Texas, and included one participant from Japan (Sony)
and Singapore (Qioptiq).
Included among the participants in Fundamentals of Optics was Jason McCaffery,
a teacher from Monroe High School in the City of Rochester, who will be
creating and teaching a twenty week Optics course for Monroe High students
next year. Jason's tuition was covered by the University, and the cost
for a substitute teacher to cover his classes while he attended the program
was covered by RRPC.
Contact RRPC
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Join us! There are advantages to working together, and
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