Inspecting optical components using mechanical instruments
Overview
This standard identifies the competences you need to carry out inspection operations on optical components, using optical inspection techniques and equipment, in accordance with approved procedures. You will be required to check components made from a variety of optical materials, using a range of inspection equipment, as appropriate. You will be expected to inspect a range of components that combine a number of different features, such as centre-thickness, diameters, generated blanks, optical lens form and power, angles, profiles, and with cosmetic defects.
You will be required to operate the inspection equipment in line with safe working practices and approved procedures, and to continuously monitor the equipment operations, making any necessary adjustments in order to ensure that the work output is to the required quality and accuracy. Meeting production targets will be an important issue, and your production records must show consistent and satisfactory performance.
Your responsibilities will require you to comply with organisational policy and procedures for the optical inspection activities undertaken, and to report any problems with the inspection activities, equipment or materials that you cannot personally resolve, or that are outside your permitted authority, to the relevant people. You will be expected to work with a minimum of supervision, taking personal responsibility for your own actions and for the quality and accuracy of the work that you carry out.
Your underpinning knowledge will provide a good understanding of your work, and will provide an informed approach to applying optical inspection procedures. You will understand the inspection procedures used, and their application, and be familiar with the equipment, materials and consumables, in adequate depth to provide a sound basis for carrying out the activities, identifying out-of-specification components, and ensuring that accepted components meet the required specification.
You will understand the safety precautions required when working with the inspection equipment. You will be required to demonstrate safe working practices throughout, and will understand the responsibility you owe to yourself and others in the workplace.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- work safely at all times, complying with health and safety and other relevant regulations, directives and guidelines
- follow the correct specification for the product or equipment being inspected
- use the correct equipment to carry out the inspection
- identify and confirm the inspection checks to be made and the acceptance criteria to be used
- carry out all required inspections, as specified
- identify any defects or variations from the specification
- record the results of the inspection in the appropriate format
- deal promptly and effectively with problems within your control and report those that cannot be solved
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
- how to work safely at all times, complying with health and safety and other relevant regulations, directives and guidelines
- the personal protective equipment (PPE) to be worn, and where this can be obtained
- the hazards associated with carrying out optical inspection operations, and how to minimise them and reduce any risks
- the importance of keeping the work area clean and tidy
- how to extract and use information from engineering drawings and related specifications (to include symbols and conventions to appropriate standards) in relation to work undertaken
- how to interpret first and third angle drawings, imperial and metric systems of measurement, workpiece reference points and system of tolerancing
- the methods of calculating data from engineering drawings/specifications
- the various optical inspection operations to be performed, and the types of equipment used
- how to calibrate equipment before inspection operations are carried out
- how to recognise the various cosmetic defects
- how to handle and store all inspection equipment, safely and correctly
- how tool wear affects surface finish and dimensional accuracy
- how the various types of material may affect the way the inspection operation is performed
- how to recognise inspection equipment faults, and how to identify when the inspection equipment needs recalibrating
- the problems that can occur with optical inspection activities, and how they can be overcome
- the quality control procedures used, inspection checks to be carried out, and the equipment used for this
- the extent of your own responsibility and to whom you should report if you have problems that you cannot resolve
Scope/range
Scope Performance
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- Carry out all of the following activities during the inspection activity:
- obtain and interpret correctly the documentation for the optical components to be
- adhere to procedures or systems in place for risk assessment, personal protective equipment and other relevant safety regulations and procedures to realise a safe system of work
- check that the required inspection equipment is within current calibration dates
- follow specified and appropriate inspection procedures to check the components
- identify, and record in the appropriate format, any out-of-tolerance dimensions/features
- investigate and obtain concessions for out-of-specification products (where appropriate)
- place products in the correct location on completion of the inspection activities (in and out of specification)
- leave the work area in a safe and tidy condition on completion of the inspection activities
- Use six types of optical inspection equipment from the following:
- lens centring rig
- optical measuring equipment
- optical flats
- centre thickness gauge
- focometer test equipment
- dial test indicators
- microscopes
- auto collimators
- slip gauges
- micrometers
- optical spheres
- vernier equipment
- interferometry and phase analysis equipment
- shadowgraph test equipment
- other specific inspection equipment
- Inspect five optical components from the following:
- infra-red lens
- combiners
- infra-red glass flats
- infra-red glass domes
- optical cylinder
- glass prisms
- infra-red prisms
- plastic lens components
- glass lens
- optical mirrors
- profiled optical components
- Inspect ten features of machined optical components from the following:
- prism angles
- lens diameter
- cap height
- truncation
- concentricity
- lens form error
- flats form error
- lens wedge
- profiles
- sag depth
- centre thickness
- flat/parallelism
- focal length
- lens centring
- refractive index
- lens power (radius)
- flats power error
- cosmetic defect
- other specific features
- Use inspection methods and techniques suitable for components made from six different types of materials from the following:
- germanium
- dense flints
- infra-red glass 4,5,6
- zinc selenide
- silicon
- barium crowns
- flints/light flints
- barium dense flints
- zinc sulphide
- plastics
- lanthanum crowns
- optical orange filter glass
- thallium ideobromide
- anomalous dispersion flour crowns
- optical blue filter glass
- borosilicate crowns
- optical neutral density glass
- other specific optical material
- Inspect optical components in accordance with one of the following specifications:
- BS, ISO or EN standards and procedures
- customer (contractual) standards and requirements
- company standards and procedures
- other accepted international standards