Modular optical construction system, components and method

Abstract

A general problem with optical component systems is the prevalence of two separate standards, the metric standard and the Imperial standard. Both standards arm well established and there is no prospect of one standard dominating in the forsceable future. In the metric standard, optical tables, breadboards and other items are provided with square grids having a 25 mm or 50 mm pitch. In the Imperial standard, the pitch is instead 1 or 2 inches. Optical rail systems, cage assembly systems and the like thus have to be specifically manufactured for each standard. The invention builds on the fact that in the metric system, the optical rods used have diameter of 12 mm (radius 6 mm), whereus in the Imperial system they have a diameter of ½ inch (radius ¼ inch). Based on this fact, the realisation has been made that the separation between the outer surfaces of two rods mounted on adjacent holes is almost the same for both standards for the special case of the comparison between 2 inch and 50 mm rod separation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.