Where a spherical lens has power in both axes, a cylindrical lens has power in one and none in the other. That single difference drives every application on this page: spread a laser beam into a straight line for alignment and machine-vision inspection, compress a beam in one axis for diode-bar shaping, or correct astigmatism inside an anamorphic optical system. The manufacturer's documented listing names the product plainly — an optical glass BK7 laser line cylindrical lens, in plano-convex and plano-concave forms — and it sits in a lens group that also covers the spherical elements the cylinder is paired with.
Plano-convex cylinders converge the beam in the powered axis — the form used to generate a line from a point or collimated input; plano-concave cylinders diverge it, widening a line or expanding a beam in one dimension. Used as a crossed pair, two cylinders at right angles act like a spherical lens with independently adjustable axis powers — the classic bench trick for shaping elliptical diode outputs into round beams, and a practical reason to source both orientations from the same catalogue.
Documented Cylindrical Lens Listing
| Item | Documented detail |
|---|---|
| Product | Optical glass BK7 laser line cylindrical lens |
| Forms | Plano-convex and plano-concave |
| Material | BK7 optical glass |
| Documented MOQ | 10 pieces |
| Primary uses | Laser line generation |
Specifying a Cylinder Lens
The specification that matters is the focal length in the powered axis, the lens dimensions (length along the cylinder axis versus height across it), the material and any coating. Line-generator buyers should also state the working distance and the line length or fan angle they need at that distance, because the same cylinder produces very different lines at different throws. If the cylinder feeds a Powell-lens comparison, note that the Powell lens page covers the Powell lens line documented in the same catalogue.
Cylindrical lenses are one family inside the manufacturer's full lens programme, which runs from plano-convex and biconvex spherical lenses to aspheric lenses. This page deliberately does not cover ophthalmic cylinder lenses for astigmatism correction — those are prescription eyewear, a different industry with a different catalogue.
Frequently Asked Questions
What material are the cylindrical lenses made from?
BK7 optical glass, per the documented laser line cylindrical lens listing.
What is the minimum order?
10 pieces on the documented listing; custom dimensions are quoted per specification.
Plano-convex or plano-concave — which do I need?
Plano-convex to converge or generate a focused line; plano-concave to diverge, widen a line or expand a beam in one axis. State your working distance and target line in the enquiry if you want the choice checked.
Line Quality: What Decides It in Practice
Buyers of laser line lenses discover quickly that the lens is only half of line quality. Alongside the lens drawing, the enquiry asks for the input beam: its type, diameter and collimation state, because the line the lens draws depends on the beam it is fed. State the source — laser type, beam diameter and whether the beam arrives collimated — when you enquire, so the lens is confirmed against the source in the quotation rather than merely against the drawing. Working distance interacts with line width in the same way: the focused line at the design distance widens on both sides of it, so a machine-vision layout that reads parts at varying heights should name the depth the line must stay usable across. These are quotation-stage details, not afterthoughts, and they belong in the first message rather than in a correction round after it.
Request a Quotation
Tell us the component, material, dimensions and coating you need. Pricing and lead time for your specification are confirmed in the written quotation.