Novel Acrylic Resin For Injection Molded Precision Lenses

A novel acrylic resin has been developed for injection molded precision lenses. This resin is a copolymer of tricyclodecyl methacrylate (TCDMA) with other acrylic monomers. The novel resin, TCDMA-Acrylic copolymer has rigid, bulky cyclic hydrocarbons in the side chain so that it possesses characteristics superior to conventional acrylic resin (PMMA) in terms of low moisture absorption properties and high temperature resistance. However, like PMMA, it also provides high transparency, low birefringence, and low dispersion of refraction. Because of these characteristics, TCDMA-Acrylic copolymer is being used for precision aspheric lenses that cannot be realized by conventional optical plastics.