Custom Sapphire Optical Domes for Underwater ROV Monitoring

Custom Sapphire Optical Domes for Underwater ROV Monitoring

Project Background

Our client, an underwater robotics developer, needed protective optical domes for their deep-sea ROV monitoring cameras. The optical dome has to survive continuous high hydrostatic pressure, seawater salt spray corrosion, sand particle abrasion and wide temperature fluctuation underwater. Ordinary glass domes quickly suffer scratches and corrosion, which reduces imaging clarity and shortens equipment service life.

Customer Requirements

• Material: Optical grade sapphire crystal
• Shape: Hemispherical dome, custom diameter & wall thickness
• Optical: High transmission in visible band, polished optical surface
• Mechanical: Resist deep water pressure, scratch & salt spray resistant
• Coating: Optional AR anti-reflection coating to boost camera light intake
• QC: Full dimensional inspection + surface defect screening before shipment

Felix Glass Solution

Our optical engineers recommended sapphire crystal as the substrate for this underwater dome. Sapphire’s Mohs hardness 9 offers outstanding scratch resistance against sand and marine particles. It also features excellent chemical stability to resist seawater salt corrosion.

We adopted ultra-precision CNC grinding and polishing process for the hemispherical curved surface. After polishing, we applied custom AR coating to reduce surface reflection and improve camera imaging performance. Every dome went through 100% visual inspection, dimension measurement and surface defect test. We used shock-proof anti-static foam packaging to protect curved sapphire domes during ocean freight.

Project Result

The finished sapphire optical domes passed the customer’s pressure tank and salt spray aging tests. The ROV camera maintains clear image in long-time deep sea operation without scratch or fogging. Our customer successfully launched the underwater monitoring system and placed repeated bulk orders after prototype validation.

Conclusion

Felix Glass manufactures custom sapphire optical domes and optical windows for marine, underwater and other harsh-environment optical systems. Send your drawing and specs for quotation.

We also produce optical windows for various harsh environment optical applications.
Submit your requirements on our Request Quote page to start your custom optical project.