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Spinoff story
Coating Plastic Lenses
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
Bell & Howell Company (at their own expense) arranged to work with an Ames Research Center scientist to learn NASA's technique of plasma polymerization. Plastic is easily formed into aspherical surfaces and compound lenses are made from plastics of different refractive indexes. Plastic lenses are injection molded at a tenth the cost of making glass lenses and are lighter than glass and cannot shatter. Scratches scatter light reducing light transmission. This technique is used for coating plastic lenses of film projectors and other optical equipment.