Contact us if you are interested in details. Disclosure subject to ITAR,
Contact us if you are interested in details. Disclosure subject to ITAR,
Demand and acceptance for residue-less First Contact Polymer is growing relentlessly. That’s a good thing! We solve companies fundamental issues regarding cleaning and protecting precision surfaces.
Thanks to R.H. from Estonia for an order of Spray First Contact! Addition of Estonia means we have sales now in 57 countries!!
Photonic Cleaning Technologies was a proud sponsor of Lasermotive who won the high power laser powered climbing vehicle challenge.
First Contact™ cleans surfaces better than other processes available to mirror coaters. Currently accepted procedures to clean large mirrors are extremely manual, dependent on the skill level of the cleaning team, and subject to recontamination of the mirror. First Contact™ is easy to use and the polymer film protects against recontamination right to the moment it is removed from the mirror. In other words, coaters can clean the mirror at any convenient time by coating it with First Contact™ and place it into the coating chamber on a schedule that is convenient for them. Other preparation steps or interruptions will not affect the cleanliness of the mirror in the chamber.
Greg Barrick led a team at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, to study First Contact™ in glass preparation prior to coating. They found that First Contact™ polymers perform as predicted yielding better coatings in terms of reduced pinholes, reduced surface roughness, and possibly better reflectance. Read the paper here: Experiments using First Contact Polymer as a final cleaning step for alumuminizing
Big first surface mirrors are, despite their large size, delicate optics. Blowing grit, animal droppings, humidity, moisture, accidental contact are all real threats to these precise and delicate instruments. First Contact is an excellent protective material as well as unmatched cleaning product for these expensive, critical optical systems components. Read about the Western Range Depot Optics Group’s experience with First Contact as it was printed in Defense Tech Briefs, vol 2 no 2, April 2008.
Cleaning and Protecting Large Mirrors; DTB; v 2,no 2, April, 2008
First Contact™ can be used virtually anywhere to clean astronomical mirrors! Phil Jackson was corralled by Howie Glatter at the Northeast Astronomy Forum in Suffern NY and asked to clean an 18″ mirror. The clips below show Phil applying First Contact™ to the mirror on the NEAF 2008 show floor and then removing the dry polymer film about 2 hours later.
Application of First Contact™ to an 18″ mirror at NEAF 2008
Removing First Contact™ polymer film from an 18″ mirror at NEAF 2008
Substance developed by UWP professor used to clean world-famous Hope Diamond.
Not everyone can say they’ve held $250 million in their hands. University of Wisconsin-Platteville professor Jim Hamilton did for more than 15 minutes. This past November, the professor in the Department of Chemistry and Engineering Physics traveled to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where he demonstrated how a substance he developed could be used to clean large gems. Days later, he found himself cleaning the Hope Diamond, arguably the most famous jewel in the entire world…
Links:
UWP – Daily Pioneer News
First Contact and the Hope Diamond TV News Video