Purchasing advisor for ball lenses with supplier directory and AI-based advice; miniature optics, beam collimation, fiber coupling, microoptics (original) (raw)
Find all you need for professional sourcing of ball lenses: a comprehensive expert-curated directory of suppliers, scientific and technical background information, and an interactive AI-based tool with guidance for a structured decision process.
NEW: Not only hardware can be listed here, but also consulting, software, training on ball lenses, etc. – see the "offer types" below.
🌐 You appear to be visiting from North America. Many listed suppliers are based in this region, making the RP Photonics Buyer's Guide highly relevant for your needs.
Purchasing high-value photonics products is a substantial responsibility. Using a structured decision-making process and high quality supplier data helps a lot:
- Find all relevant suppliers (not limited to advertisers).
- Our interactive tool conveniently assists you in defining and applying your application-specific requirements.
Note that purchasing decisions based on just a few randomly picked suppliers and without carefully defined specifications are risky; therefore, we strongly recommend using our data and tool. See also:
- How Responsible Purchase Decisions for Expensive Goods Like Lasers Are Done
- Explanations on this purchasing tool
Go through the process:
1. Understand the technical background
It is important to sufficiently understand the technology before buying.
Use the comprehensive learning resources of RP Photonics:
If you need personal help, contact RP Photonics to get technical consultancy.
I feel that I sufficiently understand the technical background.
2. Define your requirements
It is essential to fully understand and clearly define your requirements before you purchase.
We recommend that you develop a list of clear specifications according to your specific needs, against which you can later check the suitability of found product offers:
To help you, we have already listed some aspects we recommend you consider when buying ball lenses. Of course, there may be other aspects that are relevant to your specific case.
This list is for your own preparation, and can later (possibly in modified form) be used for quotation requests to suppliers.
I think that I am sufficiently informed about our requirements.
Otherwise, you will need to talk to your technical colleagues.
I consider the above list of specifications to be sufficiently complete, clear and accurate.
If you cannot sufficiently clarify your requirements, you may want to get technical consultancy from RP Photonics.
Insert these criteria when creating inquiry mails to suppliers with the buttons "Get quotation".
You find these buttons in the supplier list below or under "3. Find suitable suppliers".
3. Find suitable suppliers
We suggest three steps:
- Below, you can find our list of suppliers for ball lenses. Use the checkboxes to mark possibly suitable suppliers.
- The selected suppliers will appear below this list, along with your list of specifications. You can then indicate which specifications they meet according to your research. (You should finalize your specifications before doing this.)
- Based on the results, you can finally choose a supplier that is hopefully a good enough fit.
Selected suppliers:
(none so far)
Decision
The most suitable supplier you found:
Comments, e.g. reasons for your choice, or things which still need to be checked:
4. Document the decision process
It is essential to document your purchasing process, not only its result (chosen supplier):
- You will find it easier next time.
- If something goes wrong, you can defend your decision by showing that you properly considered all important aspects. Or you see what needs to be done better next time.
Our interactive tool makes it easy: Fill out the form, and in the end print it to a PDF. Note that the document will show all sections (including those not currently shown on the screen), while omitting some irrelevant details such as the page navigation.
Suppliers for Ball Lenses
32 suppliers for ball lenses are listed in the RP Photonics Buyer's Guide, out of which 5 present their product descriptions and images. Both manufacturers and distributors can be registered.
 Quality You Can Trust, Expertise You Can See. Hangzhou Shalom Electro-optics Technology Co., Ltd.A635, Boke MansionNo. 9 Xiyuan RoadXihu District, Hangzhou 310030China |
⚙ hardware🧩 accessories and parts🧴 consumables🔧 maintenance, repair📏 metrology, calibration, testing💡 consulting🧰 development Hangzhou Shalom EO provides ball lenses and half ball lenses made of various substrate materials including sapphire, ruby, BK7, UV fused silica, high index glass, and germanium, ZnSe, ZnS with AR coating. Our ball lenses and half-ball lenses are ideal for applications such as fiber communications, endoscopes, and microscopes. Available diameters are between 0.3 mm and 300 mm, with surface roughness (Ra) <0.007 µm and a wide AR coating wavelength range. Custom ball and half ball module options are also available on request. Product-specific web page |
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 Bringing quality into focus Knight Optical (UK)Roebuck Business ParkHarrietsham, Kent ME17 1ABUnited Kingdom |
⚙ hardware Knight Optical provides a wide range of ball and half ball lenses which are ideal for endoscopy and fibre communications. We have a variety of material options available including quartz, sapphire, cubic zirconia, ruby, BK7 and other optical glass, fused silica, borosilicate, and many more. Our stock catalogue consists of 0.4 mm to 10 mm diameter ball lenses, but custom dimensions are available up to 100 mm. Product-specific web page |
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 The Future Depends on Optics Edmund Optics101 East Gloucester PikeBarrington, NJ 08007United StatesSee us at Photonics West 2026 in San Francisco, Jan. 20–22 (booth 1139)! |
⚙ hardware Ball lenses are commonly used to improve signal quality in fiber coupling applications, or for use in endoscopy or bar code scanning applications. Our ball lenses feature short back focal lengths to minimize the distance needed from the ball lens to the optical fiber. Edmund Optics offers a variety of ball lenses in a range of substrates for performance in the ultraviolet to the NIR. Half-ball lenses are also available to ease mounting or system integration. Product-specific web page |
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 Your Custom Optics Expert Shanghai Optics Inc.425 Main St Suite 2EMetuchen, NJ 08840United States |
⚙ hardware Shanghai Optics offers custom-made ball lenses. Please contact us for manufacturing limit or custom specifications. We can offer balls lenses e.g. with a diameter tolerance of ±50 μm, scratch & dig 20/10, surface quality 40-20, and with <50 μm deviation from a sphere. Product-specific web page |
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Report Additional Suppliers for These Products
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An already registered supplier can use a customized form to report the full list of offered photonics products. That form is reachable with the red button "Edit profile data" on the supplier's profile page.
Anyone, not only suppliers themselves, can [**report additional suppliers**](/report%5Fsupplier.html?product=Ball Lenses).