ABTech’s team recently returned from Rochester, New York after attending SPIE Optifab 2023. It was a rainy weekend in Upstate New York, but our team was cozy at the event, and we felt sunny while visiting with friends, new and old. As we wrote in our event preview, we consider this event a “must-attend” in the industry, and this year’s edition was no exception.
Our team had a great time sharing some of our newest products with visitors at our booth, and it’s always exciting to see the scale and bustle of one of the largest annual shows in the industry. While we were busy with guests and didn’t get a chance to attend speaking sessions, the buzz at the event suggested that it was full of interesting, educational presentations.
In this blog, we summarize our highlights from Optifab 2023. We are already looking forward to next year’s event!
An Array of Optics Industry Innovations on Display
Over 150 companies were represented at the event. It is always inspiring to see the array of brilliant people, great companies, and innovative technologies that support the optics industry. Solutions featured at this year’s event included:
- Precision motion devices
- Optical fabrication equipment
- Optical components, materials, and systems
- Opto-mechanical components and devices
- Laser system components
- Optical thin film coatings
- Optical metrology and testing equipment
- Software
- Adhesives, glass, and consumables
As we explored the conference floor, we were happy to see many different customers in attendance. We were also proud to see a number of demo equipment units with ABTech solutions inside—we always enjoy an opportunity to see our products in action.
A Rewarding Visit to Optifab 2023
We were pleased to host a large number of visitors at the ABTech booth, and our team agreed that our latest solutions were well received, provoked quite a few interesting questions, and sparked some great conversations with old clients and new industry acquaintances alike.
This year, we were excited to present a newly designed booth and demo unit at the show. Our in-booth air bearing solutions, custom-built for demonstration and educational purposes, combined both a linear axis and rotational air bearing, allowing us to demonstrate two of our key technologies up close while maintaining a compact footprint.
A lot of old friends stopped by the booth, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Rochester this year. We were fortunate to be just three booths away from our good friends at Opto Alignment, and we enjoyed getting some bonus time with this valued customer. At times, these SPIE conferences can feel like a reunion and business conference rolled into one!
The last day of the show is set aside for local educational attendees, and it was exciting to see many different young people explore the show and its booths. A number of young engineering students stopped by our booth to learn about ABTech, precision manufacturing equipment, and potential careers in the industry. We always love opportunities to help build enthusiasm for STEM education and jobs, and we thought this was a great way to spend the final day at the event
A special thanks to Zack on the ABTech team for his hard work setting up and transporting the new booth to and from this year’s event, and to Jake for putting it all together.
Catch Us At Our Next Event
Next year’s 2024 SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing conference will be in Washington, DC. And we’re already looking forward to the event as it’s closer to home (ABTech is based out of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire).
ABTech: Custom Solutions for Optics Manufacturing
Were you able to attend this year’s SPIE Optifab event? If your visit left you curious for more information on how we can help with your precision motion application (or you weren’t able to attend this year) we encourage you to reach out to our team for a deeper discussion. We have experience helping optics manufacturers achieve sub-micron precision across a variety of challenging applications, and we take pride in diving into the granular technical details of our client’s toughest challenges.
Reach out to us at ABTech anytime, and we will get you hooked up with the perfect piece of equipment for your needs.
