Custom-shaped Sapphires are tailored sapphire parts that are specifically designed to meet unique requirements in various applications. Sapphire, known for its exceptional hardness, optical transmittance, and resistance to harsh conditions, is often shaped into specific geometries to fit specific functions in industries such as optics, electronics, aerospace, and medical equipment.

Sapphire crystals, with a chemical composition of Al2O3, exhibit multiple excellent properties.

Sapphire stands out with its unparalleled hardness, it is one of the hardest materials, making it extremely wear-resistant, sapphire can maintain optical clarity in harsh environments which often encounter high-speed particles or abradants, such as aerospace windows, downhole or drilling vision, watch crystal. Also, sapphire can handle high pressure like no other transparent material, which makes sapphire recommendable for high-pressure vessels, deep sea windows, and sight glasses. Sapphire also features excellent optical transmission in the UV, VIS, and IR spectral bands (transmission range 190-5000nm), with its prominent thermal and plasma robustness, sapphire is great for high-power UV/VIS/IR applications, and lasers. 

Other merits of sapphire include thermal stability, chemical resistance, and pressure-resilience. Sapphire has good thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion, which help it to withstand temperatures up to 1950°C without shape deformation and mechanical degradation, making sapphire a superior choice for high-temperature combustion chambers, gas processing, and lamp shields. Sapphire has strong resistance to most chemical reagents, acids, and alkalis, this renders sapphire advantageous for medical, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, and other applications where maintaining safe, pure chemical handling and processing are important.

North Optics offers a complete manufacturing procedure for sapphire components fabrication, including shaping, grinding, drilling, and polishing. Besides off-the-shelf sapphire components which are also available in North Optics, this page features our Custom-Specified Sapphires where all the specifications like shapes, dimensions, orientations, surface quality, etc. can be tailored. With state-of-the-art product technologies, we provide a wide range of custom shape sapphire parts and components, Our advanced fabrication capabilities allow us to create a wide range of sapphire products, other complex geometries, including:

• sapphire windows and flats
• sapphire domes
• sapphire mirrors
• sapphire lenses
• sapphire prisms
• sapphire light guide
• sapphire rods/sapphire tips
• sapphire tubes
• sapphire balls and bearings
• sapphire sight glass/viewports
• sapphire watch crystal
• ...

Features of Shanghai North Optics's Custom Shape Sapphire:

Exceptional Durability and Hardness:

Our sapphire components feature incredible robustness, making them ideal for use in harsh environments where the sapphire parts are exposed to abrasion, high pressure, and extreme temperatures.

Optical Clarity:

Our sapphire optics provide high transmission from the ultraviolet (UV) to the infrared (IR) spectrum, ensuring excellent performance in a wide range of optical applications.

Custom Configurations:

We offer custom designs to match your specifications, including features such as beveled and polished edges, holes, slots, and stepped edges. Our components can be manufactured in various shapes and sizes to fit your exact requirements. Multiple orientations, such as C-cut, A-plane, M-plane, R-plane, and random cut are all available. The surface finish grades can also be specified. The reliable nature and extensive access to various specifications of our custom shape sapphires cater to a wide range of fields, including aerospace, defense, medical devices, high-performance optics, etc. 

Kyropoulos Grown Sapphire:

Shanghai North Optics utilizes the Kyropolous (KY) method to grow sapphire. Sapphire grown using this method features high purity free from internal stresses and inclusions, making Kyropoulos-grown sapphires suitable for fields like electronics, optics, and manufacturing. 

Applications and Characteristics of Custom Shape Sapphire:

Sapphire has excellent UV-to-IR transmission and thermal stability:

• Sapphire optical windows excel for UV and IR applications due to their wide transmission range from UV and IR spectra, in combination with their thermal and chemical ruggedness. Sapphire windows are far less susceptible to exposure to extreme plasmas and temperatures than other materials. It can withstand high temperatures, allowing it to be used in high-temperature applications without degrading. Its good thermal conductivity (27.21 W m^-1 K^-1 at 300K) helps in dissipating heat, maintaining optical performance, and preventing thermal-induced deformation. The low thermal expansion coefficient (5.6 x 10^-6 /K parallel and 5.0 x 10^-6 /K perpendicular) further enhances its stability under varying thermal conditions, making it reliable in applications where temperature fluctuations are common.
• For lasers, sapphire’s high thermal stability and broad transmission range make it ideal for high-power lasers, functioning as windows and lenses without degrading under intense laser beams. For infrared and ultraviolet optics, sapphire’s excellent transmission makes it ideal for infrared imaging systems, UV detection equipment, and optical communication technologies. Sapphire window is also the ideal choice as a sight window for furnaces as it can separate hot zones up to 2000°C from outside room temperatures.

Sapphire is very hard and pressure-resistant:

• One of the most significant properties of sapphire is its exceptional hardness. It is one of the hardest materials available, with a Knoop hardness of 2000. The hardness feature makes sapphire a prior option when abrasion, friction, and impacts are frequent. Furthermore, among the transparent materials, sapphire is also renowned for its attribute of pressure resistance.
  
• Sapphire’s mechanical strength further extends its application field. It withstands substantial impacts and pressures, making sapphire an excellent choice for high-stress environments such as deep-sea exploration or aerospace applications, and protective contexts, such as watch crystals, camera lens cover, etc. Its robustness ensures that sapphire components can endure the physical demands of these challenging conditions without compromising performance. Sapphire components can also be used as bearings and bushings in high-speed machinery due to their hardness and wear resistance.
  

Sapphire has  high chemical resistance:

• Sapphire exhibits high resistance to chemicals (acids, and bases, molten metal, except hot caustics) ensuring durability in corrosive environments. A sapphire tube is a desirable choice for plasma chambers and sapphire lamp applications. Sapphire rods and sapphire allow for safe, pure chemical handling and processing due to their biocompatibility, hardness, and resistance to bodily fluids.