{"id":2348,"date":"2012-05-14T07:32:39","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T11:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/?p=2348"},"modified":"2012-05-14T09:19:36","modified_gmt":"2012-05-14T13:19:36","slug":"cage-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/14\/cage-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Cage systems"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/tl.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"An example application for Thorlabs&#039; 30-mm cage system.\" width=\"600\" height=\"279\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2349\" srcset=\"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/tl.png 600w, http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/tl-300x139.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Cage systems, like optical rails, are platforms for constructing custom optical systems.<\/p>\n<p>Thorlabs&#8217; <a href=\"http:\/\/thorlabs.com\/navigation.cfm?Guide_ID=2002\">16 mm, 30 mm, and 60 mm cage systems<\/a> are well known (shown above). The numbers refer to the on-center square spacing of the four 6 mm rods that form the backbone of the cages (4 mm rods in the case of the 16 mm cage system). There are some lesser-known cage systems as well. <\/p>\n<h4>Edmund Optics<\/h4>\n<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"437\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9bZj8PnOzlo\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edmundoptics.com\/mechanics\/techspec-optical-cage-system\/\">Edmund Optics<\/a> recently launched a line of cage system optomechanics. Many of the pieces may fit (or fit with minimal modification) items in the Thorlabs system since they also use 6 mm rods. More broadly, Edmund Optics actually has an excellent line of optomechanics that includes a lot of products that go beyond what Thorlabs offers. For example, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.edmundoptics.com\/mechanics\/positioning-stages-slides\/linear-ball-bearing-stages\/z-axis-brackets-for-ball-bearing-stages\/1465\">these z-axis brackets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4>Newport<\/h4>\n<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/newport.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"Baffling.\" width=\"574\" height=\"276\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2351\" srcset=\"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/newport.png 574w, http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/newport-300x144.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 574px) 100vw, 574px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newport.com\/Open-Cage-Optical-Rail-System\/863081\/1033\/info.aspx\">Here is Newport&#8217;s impenetrable cage system<\/a>. Personally, I think it was a brave choice to hire M.C. Escher as an optomechanical engineer.<\/p>\n<h4>Qioptiq<\/h4>\n<p align=\"center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/qioptiq.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"microbench\" width=\"450\" height=\"482\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2357\" srcset=\"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/qioptiq.jpg 450w, http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/qioptiq-280x300.jpg 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/p>\n<p> Formerly known as the infinitely more pronounceable Linos, their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.qioptiq-shop.com\/en\/Optomechanics\/LINOS-Microbench\/\">Microbench<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.qioptiq-shop.com\/en\/Optomechanics\/LINOS-Nanobench\/\">Nanobench<\/a> lines are excellent. On paper, they should be compatible with Thorlabs 30 mm and 16 mm cage systems, respectively, but in practice I find that there often needs to be just a little bit of modification&#8211; e.g., widening holes slightly. Maybe this is due to English-to-metric round-off errors, or different tolerances.<\/p>\n<h4>Others<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cvimellesgriot.com\/Products\/Opto-Mechanics.aspx\">CVI Melles Griot<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.siskiyou.com\/\">Siskiyou<\/a> both have excellent lines of optomechanics, but no cage systems as far as I can tell.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere on Labrigger:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/20\/alternative-mechanics\/\">Alternative Optomechanics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\">\n<p>Cage systems, like optical rails, are platforms for constructing custom optical systems.<\/p>\n<p>Thorlabs&#8217; <a href=\"http:\/\/thorlabs.com\/navigation.cfm?Guide_ID=2002\">16 mm, 30 mm, and 60 mm cage systems<\/a> are well known (shown above)&#8230;.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/14\/cage-systems\/\">Read More<\/a><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14,15],"class_list":["post-2348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","tag-construction","tag-optics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2348"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2365,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions\/2365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/labrigger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}