Honeycomb Breadboards

Tables – Breadboards

Base Lab Tools offers a variety of honeycomb breadboards. Our breadboards are designed by optical researchers with experience in both academic and industrial laboratories. The key to the design comes from starting with a composite core that absorbs vibration rather than transmits it like most metal core optical breadboards. We like to think of the core as “pre-dampened” from which we can then build out one of the lightest, vibration isolation platforms available anywhere in the world All of our breadboards and tables are proudly made in the USA.

Sub-categories

Honeycomb Optical Breadboards • Breadboard Stands • Optical Breadboard Work Stations

Using our extensive expertise in the manufacturing of optical breadboards and optical tables, Base Lab Tools offers a unique abilities that cannot be found anywhere else.

Our honeycomb optical breadboards are designed using a composite core that eliminates the need compensate for a bad core design with messy oil bladders or extra weights needed in all metal core optical breadboards. Starting with the key component of the honeycomb breadboard design optimized, we are then able to offer our standard 3/16″ (5mm) feromagnetic steel skins or our ultra lightweight 3/16″ (5mm) aluminum skins. Likewise we can coat the breadboards with either a black laser safe coating or a white clean-room coating.

Base Lab Tools has the ability to manufacture almost any custom honeycomb breadboard within 2-4 weeks. We can make this happen because optical breadboards and optical tables are our main business, not a side business as with so many large photonics catalog companies.

How do I choose whether I need a solid aluminum or honeycomb core optical breadboard? It all has to do with rigidity. The rule of thumb is that the thicker the breadboard, the more ridged (less deflection for a given weight). As an example, here is a sided by side test of a 1/2″ (13mm) aluminum breadboard compared to a 2″ (50mm) core steel skins breadboard.

While the units in this graph are arbitrary, the trend for is important to note that the honeycomb deflects at least 1/3 as much as the same sized solid aluminum breadboard. The trend gets only better when the thickness is increased to 4″ or 8″ or more.