Japanese Producers to Use Kodak Aspheric Lenses

Lenses made by Eastman Kodak in Rochester will soon be sold to Japanese manufacturers for inclusion in compact disk players, giving Kodak optical goods a toehold in the Japanese market, the company says.

Kodak said it will supply aspheric lenses to Nitto Optical Co. of Tokyo, which will sell them to manufacturers.

Kodak has developed a single aspheric lens that can be used in place of the three-element lens assembly commonly used in compact disk players, said spokesman Charles S. Smith. It will perform better than the three-element lens and weighs less, he said.

Kodak makes the lenses with the technology it developed in the disk camera program, Smith said. The technology is also used to produce lenses for fiber optics systems. The technique is a carefully guarded Kodak secret and is not licensed to other companies.