Features

• Holds 2" (50 mm) Square Filters Up to 4 mm Thick
• Mounts Up to 2 Filters Simultaneously
• Four Ø6 mm Through Holes with Center-to-Center Spacings of 60 mm
• Spring-Loaded Clips Hold Optic in Place and Enable Quick Removal
• Post-Mountable via 8-32 (M4) Tap

This 60 mm Cage Plate, which has a Ø2" through hole (42 mm clear aperture), is designed to hold either 2" square or 50 mm square filters up to 4 mm thick. Since the mount is equipped with two spring clips on each side, a filter can be pressed up against either side of the clear aperture. Additional features include four through holes for cage rods as well as side-located locking setscrews to hold the rods in position. For added convenience, the mount is post-mountable via the 8-32 (M4) tapped hole on the bottom surface.

This filter holder is ideal for use with our 2" x 2" Unmounted Absorptive Neutral Density Filters or our Square Colored Glass Filters.

Build Your Own Collimated LED Source

The setup shown to the right uses a custom 2" x 2", square, 600 grit ground glass diffuser as part of a homemade Diffused LED Condenser, which collimates the light exiting the LED source. Although Thorlabs also manufactures out-of-the-box collimated LED light sources, which essentially provide the same result, the one shown here is perfect for those inclined to build their own, perhaps as part of an educational setup. In this particular case, the setup was built using a 60 mm cage system. If you are not familiar with Thorlabs' 60 mm cage assemblies, they consist of cage-compatible components that are interconnected with cage rods. Each cage component features four tapped holes with center-to-center spacings of 60 mm, and they are joined together into a cage system using Ø6 mm rigid steel cage rods; in this case 4" long cage assembly rods were chosen. The reason for building a cage system is to ensure that the optical components housed inside the cage system have a common optical axis.

To integrate the MWWHL3 mounted warm white light LED, which has internal SM1 (1.035"-40) threading, into the 60 mm cage system, the mounted LED was threaded into an LCP02 30 mm-to-60 mm cage plate adapter using an SM1T2 Lens Tube Coupler. Next, the light source is directed through a custom ground glass diffuser, which is held in place using an LCP05 Cage-Compatible Mount for 2" Square Filters. After exiting the diffuser, the divergent light is collimated using an LA1401 Ø2" Uncoated Plano-Convex Lens with a focal length of 60.0 mm. The lens is housed in an LCP01 60 mm Cage Plate.

The entire 60 mm cage assembly is mounted onto a TR3 post using the 8-32 thread on the bottom of the LCP05, placed in a PH3 post holder, and attached to the breadboard using a BA2 Mounting base.

An example of the standard cage
plate measurements determining
cage system compatibility.

Cage System Overview

The Cage Assembly System provides a convenient way to construct large optomechanical systems with an established line of precision-machined building blocks designed for high flexibility and accurate alignment.

16 mm, 30 mm, and 60 mm Cage System Standards

Thorlabs offers three standards defined by the center-to-center spacing of the cage assembly rods (see image to right). The 16 mm cage, 30 mm cage, and 60 mm cage standards are designed to accomodate Ø1/2", Ø1", and Ø2" optics, respectively. Specialized cage plates that allow smaller optics to be directly inserted into our larger cage systems are also available.

Standard Threads

The flexibility of our Cage Assembly System stems from well-defined mounting and thread standards designed to directly interface with a wide range of specialized products. The three most prevalent thread standards are our SM05 Series (0.535"-40 thread), SM1 Series (1.035"-40 thread), and SM2 Series (2.035"-40 thread), all of which were defined to house the industry's most common optic sizes. Essential building blocks, such as our popular lens tubes, directly interface to these standards.