Grayfield Optical Inc - High Resolution Optical Microscopes

At the age of 23, Kurt Olbrich became a master of the model and tooling trades. With these qualifications, he started to work with plastic technology, which was in its beginnings at the time. His work with plastics allowed him to advance his career with to head their applied research department. After 20 years with Hoechst, he decided to become self-employed in 1972 in the field of Basic Research and later in 1973/74 as a German state certified consultancy expert.

As he could not achieve the results he required with the existing light microscope technology, he started to develop his own series of microscopes with enhanced features. He made detailed research into the reasons why the resolution and depth of field, of existing light microscopes, is so limited. His research led to his discoverery of a unique new way of building microscopes which no longer suffered the constraints of existing optical therory.

In 1976, Kurk Olbrich founded the "Institute for Interdisciplinary Basic Reseach" and developed a number of new Ergonom microscopes in order to back up his consultancy work. Based in Mossatal-Hiltersklingen, a small town in the Oden forrest (Odenwald) north east of Heidelberg in Germany, he provided technical and scientific research services for a number of mainly German based companies, institutions and medical reseach labs.

He found that by using a different approach to optics and a new mathematical approach, he could build microscopes with a large "cylinder of sharpness" (depth of field) and a resolution better than 100nm, while maintaining full contour sharpness and true colors. Let us first look at the microscopes Kurt Olbrich has built over the years.

Kurt Olbrich's Motto is:

"Instead of saying something is impossible,
say you have not yet found the solution, yet"

Kurt Olbrich

Rotation Microscope, 1972
Kurt Olbrich's first self-made microscope

Ergonom 100, 1972
Variable depth of field and normal Color Contrast

Ergonom 200, 1973
Variable Depth of Field, High Color Contrast,
High Resolution, True colors in real time

Ergonom 300, 1974
Variable Depth of Field, Variable Color Contrast
High Resolution (improved), True colors in real time

Ergonom 400, 1976
Variable Depth of Field, Variable Color Contrast
Very High Resolution (<100nm), True colors in real time
No Staining, etc. required, Extended working distance
Both normal and inverted stages in one microscope

Kurt Olbrich

Ergonom 400-2, 1985
Designed for Metallurgy observations
Variable Depth of Field
Variable Color Contrast
High Resolution (<100nm)
True colors in real time
Halogen/Arc light source
This unique microscope is for sale

Ergonom 400-1, 1985
Designed for Biological observations
Variable Depth of Field
Variable Color Contrast
High Resolution (<100nm)
True colors in real time
Halogen light source
This unique microscope is for sale

Ergonom 400-3, 1977
Specialised Stereo Microscope
Over 30mm depth of field

A revolutionary light optical microscope using halogen light with extremely high variable depth of field (<30mm), variable color contrast (no staining required), very high resolution and sharp contours.
This optical solution (Olbrich Lens System) does not require computers or digital processing in order to provide you with live, real-time stereo images!

Specifications

• Extremely high resolution
• Variable depth of field in true color
• A special parallax correction allows viewing in stereo or parallax error free as a 1 channel system (right or left channel)
• Can be built for reflected or transmitted light
• Images are free of all abberations
• and can be used for precise measurements
• Zoom range 1x to 15x and can be used with various objectives e.g. 0.5x, 1x, 1.5x
• The working distance in the X, Y and Z axis can be 50cm or more as required
• Due to the long working distance,
• this microscope can be used for the most difficult observations

Ergonom 400-4, 1980
Specialised test-tube Microscope
Used mainly for observing clusters in water

Marketing History

Up until 2002, Kurt Olbrich refused to sell his Ergonom microscopes commercially, preferring to provide a consultancy service mainly for the automotive, chemical, plastics and electronics industries along with some medical research work primarily with the University of Heidelberg.

As Kurt Olbrich got older, he realised that he could not continue his consultancy work for ever. In 2002, he therefore developed a new marketable version of his Ergonom microscopes - the Ergonom 500.

In contrast to his previous microscopes, the Ergonom 500 maintains the high quality imaging capabilities, including variable depth of field, full colour contrast, etc. of the Ergonom 400, while being much more compact and easier to use.

In 2004, two smaller microscopes were released for an entirely different market. The 3D Optical Macro-Microscope with 28mm DOF and the Portable Microscope with 4mm DOF ( see our product pages for more details).

In 2006, the Ergonom 400-5 and 400-6 microscopes were released that have been further simplified in order to lower costs while maintaining the high resolution capabilities, etc. of the Ergonom 500.

In 2007, the Ergonom 4000 series was released as a commercial version of the Ergonom 500 microscope. This new series provides even similar resolution to the Ergonom 500, while being even easier to operate while reducing the manufacturing costs.

In August 2007, the new Ergonom Lite microscope will be released with 300nm resolution at a price much more affordable for larger clinics and hospitals, etc.

In order to market the Ergonom microscopes, Kurt Olbrich co-founded the Orthikon GmbH company for marketing primarily in German speaking countries as Kurt Olbrich does not speak English.

Grayfield Optical Inc was founded in 2003 specifically for the marketing of Kurt Olbrich's range of microscopes to the rest of the world using the English language. Grayfield Optical Inc presented themselves for the first time publically at the Micro Science 2004 Exhibition in London during July 2004 and again in 2006 where the Ergonom 400-5 was presented for the first time at a public exhibition.

Ergonom 500, 2002

Portable Microscope, 2004

3DOM, 2004

Ergonom 400-5, 2006

Ergonom 4000, 2007