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Thread: ILDA have issued a warning about Fake Gratings

  1. #1
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    Default ILDA have issued a warning about Fake Gratings

    For interested laserists on this forum


    ATTN : ILDA Membership and Interested Laserist

    From:

    Paul Berthot

    ILDA Ethics committee
    Board of Directors

    Many of us know Peter Mayer Of Creative laser. I know many of us have purchased and used
    his high quality gratings for many years.

    For some time now, the ILDA Ethics committee has been investigating an allegation that illegal
    and unauthorized low quality copies of Peters work are being produced and distributed.

    It is unfortunate that I can confirm this is true. ILDA has obtained such copies through a variety
    of outlets in the United States and Europe.

    Upon Independent analysis we have determined
    the gratings are copies, and are in violation of Peters work copyrighted and protected through
    the WTO.

    Normally, for a variety of reasons, we do not make public
    - charges or allegations brought forth
    to the ethics committee.
    Peters Business has been severely crippled, and, unfortunately will take
    time to recover, if at all. So in this case, with hard evidence in hand, it has been decided to make this known.

    This is not intended - or is in any way a "official" report by the ethics committee or ILDA.
    This is merely an advisory to the membership and related community.
    Official documentation Will remain on file but confidential to the ethics committee and ILDA
    Board of Directors.

    If you are purchasing gratings for use now, or in the future- please investigate the actual
    source of the gratings. The gratings are also being sold and incorporated into "stand alone,
    motorized, and projector " type devices. Again, please be cautious and suspicious.

    I can confirm the " copies " are not of the same quality and durability of those of Peter Mayer.

    During the course of this investigation, I can also confirm the involvement of ILDA member Neo-
    Neon. Many of you know Jim Hardaway , whom although no longer directly involved with day
    to day manufacturing operations of Neo-Neon, remains their point of contact to this industry.

    It had been determined that some gratings being distributed by Neo-Neon " may" or "may not"
    have been copied.

    As a ILDA member, Jim has agreed to cease any known or unknown
    purchase of these gratings from any unauthorized manufacturer for distribution.

    Jim Hardaway has also provided information crucial to this investigation- as to the actual
    manufacture and source of the items in question. His help has been appreciated.

    I want to state that Neo- Neon "is not" the manufacture of the gratings.

    We have the alleged manufacturer information on hand . I would like to say that the company in question is not a ILDA member, or for that matter, directly involved in manufacture to the display market.

    Their focus appears to be generally in the direction of electro-optic devices, and other quick
    money making opportunities.

    They are located in China

    Lastly, please remember that the ILDA ethics committees works to resolve issues between
    members, we do have jurisdictional limits. In cases such as this, - while ILDA may satisfy
    requirements relevant to the ILDA code of conduct, there is often a second action required by
    the parties, which may involve legal action outside the course of ILDA.

    Unfortunately we all realize events such as this have happened to a variety of industries
    worldwide.

    We will continue to assist Mr Mayer in this situation.

    In the meantime, please be mindful of your purchases and lets support Peter.

    You may contact me directly about this issue through ILDA or at ilda_ethics_committee
    @clandestinesystems.com

    Thanks

    Paul Berthot

    ILDA ethics committee
    Board of Directors
    Paul Berthot
    all the best .... Karl

  2. #2
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    sounds like somone outsourced something to china and the factory made a few extra for themselves?

    this is not uncommon... happenes a lot with high end audio gear also

  3. #3
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by flecom View Post
    sounds like somone outsourced something to china and the factory made a few extra for themselves?
    That would mean they aren't necessarily poorer quality as the announcement indicates.

  4. #4
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
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    No, they did the holographic version of a contact print in photography.
    I'm not gonna go into details how to do the copying process. But we did it all the time in a lab I used to manage that did diffractive optics. It required one expensive honking piece of gear, and if not done very, very carefully, nearly always results in marginally useful crap compared to what a real first run grating by PM would be. PM/Lightworld has their own production facility.

    If I wanted to toss names around I could guess the expat laser engineer now living in China that did this, but I will not.

    Making the real masters in Germany using electron beam lithography was not simple nor inexpensive.

    Building the gear and making one master in our well equipped lab required 3 days a week of my time, for a year, and those were long days.

    Steve

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