Midwest Optical Filters

Machine vision filters for contrast, colour control and wavelength selection

Midwest Optical began in 1988 as a manufacturer of custom precision optical components and systems. Their machine vision filters are designed for industrial imaging applications where reliable contrast, wavelength control and long-term stability are critical.

Midwest Optical filters are available in shortpass, longpass, bandpass, polarising, neutral density, infrared, ultraviolet, acrylic and light balancing types. They are commonly used in machine vision, license-plate recognition, security, photography, astronomy and biological imaging applications.

Adept Turnkey supplies Midwest Optical machine vision filters and mounting solutions in Australia and New Zealand.

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Midwest Optical Filter Categories

Midwest Optical colour bandpass filters

Colour Bandpass Filters

Colour bandpass filters improve contrast and isolate specific visible wavelengths for LED lighting, fluorescence and colour separation applications.

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Midwest Optical filter mounts

Filter Mounts

Threaded mounts, slip mounts, board camera adapters, C/CS-mount filters and step rings for optical filter integration.

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Why Midwest Optical Filters? Working With Filters Typical Benefits Filters By Type Alphabetical Filter List Filter Mounts Right Angle Adapters

Why Use Midwest Optical Filters?

Designed for machine vision

Midwest Optical mounted, single substrate, hard-coated filters are specifically created for industrial machine vision applications.

Improved contrast

Filters increase contrast so vision systems can more reliably distinguish desired features from background variation.

Long-term stability

Hard-coated filter designs withstand cleaning, high heat, humidity and vibration for long service life.

Lens protection

Filters also help protect lenses from dust, scratches and harsh inspection environments.

Common Applications

Machine vision

Improve contrast and control lighting variability in industrial inspection systems.

License-plate recognition

Support visible and infrared imaging requirements in traffic and transport applications.

Security

Improve night vision, IR illumination control and day/night camera performance.

Biological imaging

Support fluorescence, UV, visible and near-infrared imaging requirements.

Hot material imaging

Suppress glare and bright glow from hot metals, glass and industrial processes.

Colour correction

Balance LED, halogen and fluorescent lighting for more natural colour reproduction.

Working With Filters

Filter selection is made by matching the filter type to the lighting source, imaging wavelength, subject colour and inspection goal. When matched with the correct lighting, optical filtering is one of the most important factors contributing to reliable machine vision performance.

Filters are designed to work with monochromatic LED lighting, white LED lighting, fibre optic lighting, structured diode-generated patterns and other lighting commonly used in machine vision. The goal is to improve contrast, reduce unwanted ambient light and help the vision system identify the required feature.

Midwest Optical filters are engineered and sized to each mount for maximum field of view and are ready to use out of the box. For lens compatibility, adapter options and custom mounting, see filter mounts.

Typical Results and Benefits

Colour recognition and separation

Filters can help separate coloured subject matter, often allowing lower-cost monochrome camera systems to achieve reliable colour-based inspection results.

Suppress unwanted LED colour casts

Light balancing filters can reduce strong blue, red or green colour casts caused by artificial lighting.

Improve lens resolution and contrast

Reducing the wavelength range being imaged can improve resolution, reduce false accepts and reduce false rejects.

Eliminate glare

Polarising filters selectively reduce glare where lighting position alone cannot remove reflections.

Test infrared imaging

Infrared filters help evaluate subject contrast beyond visible wavelengths where the human eye cannot see.

Improve fluorescence detection

Bandpass filters can block the excitation source and allow weaker fluorescence to be detected more reliably.

Filters By Type

Filter Type Models Best Used For
Colour Bandpass BP470, BP505, BP525, BP590, BP635, BP660 LED wavelength matching, colour separation and fluorescence applications.
Colour Narrow Bandpass BN470, BN532, BN595, BN630, BN660 Stronger ambient light rejection in visible wavelength imaging.
Infrared Narrow Bandpass BN740, BN785, BN850 IR illumination, traffic systems, security and industrial inspection.
Dual Bandpass DB850, DB940 Day/night colour camera systems using visible plus IR illumination.
UV Bandpass BP250, BP324, BP365 UV imaging, fluorescence applications and UV illumination filtering.
Infrared Pass / Visible Block LP695, LP780, LP830, LP920, LP1000, BP695, BP735, BP800, BP850, BP880 Near-infrared imaging, IR LEDs, laser diodes and InGaAs camera systems.
Infrared Block / Visible Pass BP550, SP645, SP675, SP700, SP730 Colour imaging, hot mirrors, IR blocking and colour camera correction.
Longpass Colour LP500, LP515 Blocking shorter wavelengths while passing longer visible wavelengths.
Shortpass / Notch Colour SP510, SP570, SP585, SP625, NF550 Hot material imaging, spectral separation and green wavelength blocking.
Neutral Density ND030, ND060, ND090, ND120, NI030, NI060, NI090, NI120 Reducing light intensity without changing colour balance.
Polarising PR032, PC052, PI035, PSxxx Glare reduction, reflection suppression and IR polarisation.
White Light Balancing LA120, LB080, FL550 Correcting colour casts from LED, halogen and fluorescent lighting.
Acrylic Longpass AC380, AC685, AC760 Protective windows, acrylic IR filtering and lightweight custom filter materials.

Alphabetical Filter List

Model Description Model Description
AC380 A/R Acrylic Protective Window AC685 Acrylic NIR Longpass Filter
AC760 Acrylic NIR Longpass Filter BN470 Narrow Blue Bandpass / UV Block 450-495nm
BN532 Narrow Green Bandpass 515-560nm BN595 Narrow Orange Bandpass 570-615nm
BN630 Narrow Light Red Bandpass 610-650nm BN660 Narrow Dark Red Bandpass 640-680nm
BN740 Narrow IR Bandpass 720-770nm BN785 Narrow IR Bandpass 760-805nm
BN850 Narrow IR Bandpass 825-870nm BP250 Broadband UV Bandpass Filter
BP324 UV-A/B Bandpass Filter BP365 Blacklite / UV-A Bandpass Filter
BP470 Blue Bandpass Filter BP505 Cyan Bandpass Filter
BP525 Light Green Bandpass Filter BP550 NIR-UV Block / Visible Pass Filter
BP590 Orange Bandpass Filter BP635 Light Red Bandpass Filter
BP660 Dark Red Bandpass Filter BP695 IR Bandpass Filter for NIR Fluorescence
BP735 IR Bandpass Filter for 735nm LEDs BP800 Broad IR Bandpass / Thin Filter Applications
BP850 IR Bandpass Filter for 850nm LEDs BP880 IR Bandpass Filter for 880nm LEDs
DB850 Dual Bandpass Visible + 850nm IR DB940 Dual Bandpass Visible + 940nm IR
FL550 Minus Green Light Balancing Filter LA120 Minus Blue+ Light Balancing Filter
LB080 Minus Red Light Balancing Filter LP695 IR Longpass Filter
LP780 IR Longpass for 810-830nm Illumination LP830 IR Longpass for 850nm / 880nm LEDs
LP920 IR Dichroic Longpass for 940nm LEDs LP1000 IR Longpass for Vidicon / InGaAs Cameras
LP500 Yellow Longpass Filter LP515 Yellow-Orange Longpass Filter
ND030 Neutral Density OD 0.3 ND060 Neutral Density OD 0.6
ND090 Neutral Density OD 0.9 ND120 Neutral Density OD 1.2
NI030 Low Reflectivity ND OD 0.3 NI060 Low Reflectivity ND OD 0.6
NI090 Low Reflectivity ND OD 0.9 NI120 Low Reflectivity ND OD 1.2
NF550 Magenta Dichroic Notch Filter PC052 Circular Polarizer
PI035 IR Linear Polarizer PR032 Rotating Linear Polarizer
SP510 Blue Dichroic Shortpass Filter SP570 Blue-Green Dichroic Shortpass Filter
SP585 Cyan Dichroic Shortpass Filter SP625 Blue-Green-Orange Dichroic Shortpass Filter
SP645 Mid-Red / NIR Dichroic Block Filter SP675 Deep Red / NIR Dichroic Block Filter
SP700 Hot Mirror / NIR Dichroic Block Filter SP730 Hot Mirror / NIR Colourless Block Filter

Need help selecting Midwest Optical filters?

Talk to our machine vision engineers about lighting, wavelength selection, filter mounts and optical filtering for your application.

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