Thorlabs Adds JML Optical to Carve Out Rochester Presence

Thorlabs has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire JML Optical Industries LLC, a custom designer and manufacturer of precision optics.

The transaction is expected to close later this month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

JML’s optical solutions support the aerospace, defense, medical, life sciences, entertainment, imaging, and semiconductor industries. The JML Optical team will remain in Rochester, N.Y., and form a new Thorlabs entity called Thorlabs Lens Systems Inc. (TLS).

Bill Donovan, business unit leader of Thorlabs’ optics division (Thorlabs Advanced Photonics) said the addition of the JML provides Thorlabs with a design and manufacturing presence in Rochester, N.Y. Paul Melone, Thorlabs’ director of global optics manufacturing, said Thorlabs plans to invest in expanding the Rochester-based team and its manufacturing capacity and capabilities.

TLS will operate as an R&D and production facility and add to Thorlabs’ existing optics manufacturing footprint, which occupies 120,000 sq ft of vertically integrated production space within its N.J. campus and another 24,000 sq ft within its facilities in S.C. and Calif.