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LightPath Technologies’ wholly-owned subsidiary, ISP Optics Corporation has been awarded a $5 million purchase contract for a variety of infrared optical lens elements by a major commercial infrared vision products customer.
According to the company, the purchase contract requires manufacturing to commence immediately, with monthly shipping of lenses throughout 2018. LightPath was selected by the customer after an evaluation of suppliers based on volume manufacturing capabilities, materials and cost analysis, and global service and support for an optimized value proposition. This single contract represents 16% of LightPath’s trailing 12-month revenues through September 2017 and the company now is confident that recent investments in their production capacity and sales and marketing initiatives are delivering their intended results.
According to market research firm MarketsandMarkets, the vision products market is estimated to grow from USD 5.4 billion in 2016 to USD 6.9 billion in 2022. However, research shows that a major challenge for vision products manufacturers is high cost. LightPath has come to the aid of these manufacturers by lowering the cost and improving the functionality of integrated optical technologies. The cost competitive delivery of these components and assemblies are being facilitated by the significant investments the company has made in diamond turning, optical coating and state of the art chalcogenide molding technology and staffing.
LightPath also was recently awarded an initial commercial contract with a major supplier for state of the art infrared optical assemblies designed into the customer’s next generation of IR detectors. Shipments began in the quarter ended December 2017 for lenses that are part of an infrared system, which is smaller, lighter and consumes less power while delivering significantly greater image definition and reliability.
Leveraging its proprietary technologies for night vision and as a leading provider of innovative chalcogenide glass lenses, LightPath is well-positioned with a differentiated family of products for various types of automotive night vision applications. The company has the unique capability to package together a combination of infrared and visible light optics assemblies. The company expects many automobile manufacturers to begin adopting next generation infrared night vision or thermal night vision capabilities.
Back in November 2017, the company announced the expansion of ISP’s facilities in Latvia, which expansion anticipated the orders announced today along with substantially higher production requirements for infrared products based on heightened market demand. The facility expansion added 435 square meters of floor space, including 343 square meters of manufacturing and production space and 92 square meters of office space. The expansion increased the footprint of the Latvian facility by 25%, from 1,753 square meters to 2,188 square meters. LightPath also previously disclosed investments of approximately USD 1.4 million globally to expand its production capacity, which includes significant spending on equipment and facilities in Latvia. The facility and equipment expansion in Latvia enables it to support continued sales growth of infrared products, improve its cost structure, and provide additional support to customers.
These facility and equipment investments are in addition to research and product development spending to bolster the Company’s technological leadership. As a result, it has improved its time to market for new product innovations and accelerated delivery for custom and traditional projects.
LightPath’s product development efforts include advanced driver assistance systems or ADAS, light distance and ranging or LIDAR sensing and spectrographic and fiber delivery technologies. Many of these products, which are being designed for higher margin applications within the automotive electronics and healthcare, incorporate the company’s infrared technologies and, in certain cases, also include its visible light technologies.