VALLEY VIEW, Ohio, Jan. 14 -- Carl Zeiss Inc. NA, the parent company of all North American Zeiss companies, has established a formal strategic alliance with and has taken a significant minority equity interest in Nanofilm LTD, based in Valley View, Ohio. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.In acting as a development partner in certain Nanofilm products, Zeiss will use a precision coating developed by Nanofilm as the foundation for a new generation of optical lenses. The coating is an ultra-thin polymeric film that the companies said provides plastic lens materials with the performance qualities of glass. The coated lens will be available initially only in the consumer eyewear market through Carl Zeiss Optical and its licensees, but is expected to be eventually adopted by many of the business units of the Carl Zeiss organization, said Edward Greene, president of Carl Zeiss Optical.