What is Optical Coating?
Optical coating or thin films coating is a manufacturing process in which products like glasses, mirrors, computer screens and fiber optic parts are coated with metals. Optical coating gives products the ability to reflect light in different ways, unlike uncoated products. Coating is usually accomplished by using machines operated by technicians, who program or oversee the machine processes. Some machines perform automated processes that do not need to be carefully overseen. There are different types of demands for optical coating. In some cases, as in mirrors, the desired effect is to produce a product with a high degree of light reflection. By choosing materials with opposite levels of refraction and stacking them, one increases reflection in the finished product. For inexpensive mirrors, a typical optical coating material would be aluminum coating the glass. More expensive coatings, like silver, which result in more expensive mirrors, are of higher quality because they reflect more
