Plano-Convex Lenses (PCX)

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A plano-convex lens converges a collimated beam to a focus and collimates a point source placed at that focus. The documented catalogue includes a magnifying glass plano-convex lens line offered at 100, 150, 200 and 300 mm diameters. The storefront listings also group a plano-convex entry by name with fly-eye lenses, beam combiners and laser protection plates: 'Plano-Convex Lens / Fly Eye Lens / Beam Combiner / Laser Protection Plate', recorded at FOB US$1–5 per piece with a minimum of ten pieces.

Orientation is the one specification habit worth forming with this lens type. For focusing a collimated beam, the convex surface should face the collimated light; reversed, the same element shows noticeably more spherical aberration. It is a small point, but the drawing's performance assumes the singlet is mounted that way round — and it is free, because it costs nothing to mount the lens the right way round.

Documented Plano-Convex Range

Where PCX Lenses Are Specified

• Condensers and illumination — collecting and directing light in projectors, enlargers and inspection lamps.
• Laser focusing — simple focusing duties where a singlet's aberration budget is acceptable or corrected elsewhere in the train.
• Collimation — turning a point or fibre source into a parallel beam for alignment and sensing.
• Fly-eye lens — a name grouped with the plano-convex entry in the documented combined listing: 'Plano-Convex Lens / Fly Eye Lens / Beam Combiner / Laser Protection Plate'.

Plano-convex elements pair naturally with their mirror-image family, the plano-concave lens, and with the biconvex lenses that share power between two convex surfaces for near-symmetric conjugates. State diameter, focal length, material and coating in the enquiry; minimums on the documented listings are 10 pieces, with pricing and lead time confirmed in the written quotation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What sizes are documented?

Magnifying plano-convex formats at 100, 150, 200 and 300 mm diameter are documented listings. Other plano-convex sizes are not separately recorded; state the diameter and focal length your instrument needs in the enquiry.

Which way round should a PCX lens be mounted?

Convex surface toward the collimated beam when focusing; when collimating, the plane surface faces the point source and the convex surface faces the collimated beam. Reversing it increases spherical aberration.

What is the minimum order?

10 pieces on the documented plano-convex listings.

Coating and Material Choices for PCX Lenses

Two options follow size and focal length in a plano-convex quotation. The first is coating: an uncoated element reflects a few percent of the light at each surface, which in a condenser is a small efficiency tax and in a laser path can be a stray-light problem, so whether an element is supplied coated, and for which working band, is settled model by model in the enquiry — the documented listings record lens names, sizes and minimum quantities, not a coating state that follows the format. The second is material: standard optical glass covers visible service. Where ultraviolet or high-power laser duty demands a fused-silica-class material, name that duty in the enquiry — the documented plano-convex listings record no fused-silica execution for this format, so the material is settled model by model rather than assumed from the range. Neither choice is visible in the lens's outline, which is why both belong in the first enquiry message rather than in a correction round later. Mounting deserves one line as well — a plano-convex element in a retaining ring wants its orientation marked, because the performance difference between its two orientations is real and a reversed lens in a sealed assembly is an expensive discovery.