Syntec Optics is a privately held American optics and photonics manufacturing company located in Rochester, NY. The company develops, manufactures, and assembles custom optical solutions for defense & security, medical, and virtual reality applications. The company was originally started as Syntec in 1981. In 1997 Boston-based entrepreneur, Al Kapoor started acquiring Syntec with its other affiliates and founded Syntec Optics. Its customers include leading multinationals, innovative defense contractors, and pioneering start-ups. Syntec Optics pioneered polymer optics that allowed plastics to replace glass as an effective, bio-compatible, and less expensive solution for optics. New nano-technology techniques like HRDT (High Refraction Diamond Turning) for newly invented highly engineered resins further enabled radical innovations that led to dramatic reduction in product costs - as high as 50% in some cases. In 2016, the White House declared Optics and Photonics as America’s competitive advantage globally. Syntec Optics was a key partner of the team invited for the new Rochester NY Photonics Institute announcement at the White House led by the Research Foundation of the State University of New York (RF SUNY). Syntec Optics has created hundreds of new jobs in Rochester, NY.
Syntec Optics has become North America’s largest polymer optics assembly and opto-mechanical component provider. Renovation and development of a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility more than 85,000 sq. ft. in size, built on over 7 acres of land, has allowed co-location of its polymer optics and optics assembly division with its optical mold, diamond turning optics, and optical coating division. Syntec’s affiliated opto-mechanicals division called Wordingham Technologies has also co-located. Offerings from all divisions are combined at the same location in City of Rochester NY to make plastic optics assemblies for the full light spectrum. Lens, prisms, mirrors, and other optics components can be combined within optical barrels and housings for various geometries ranging from diffractives to aspheres.