Inside San Diego’s Blue Tech EconomyInside San Diego’s Blue Tech EconomySeeing Under PressureRayotek & Safer Viewing of Hostile Marine Environsccording to Bill Raggio, Rayotek Scienti? c isn’t speci? cally a maritime company, but it de? nitely is part of San Diego’s “Blue Economy.” “We’re Aboth an engineering company and a sapphire and glass manufacturer. We makes specialized glass for windows and sight windows, diffusers, pressure vessels, hydraulics and boiler systems, submarine periscopes and camera covers,” says Raggio, Rayotek’s chief technology of? cer. Rayotek designed “Spacecraft and submarines both require windows that can the 7.5 ft. diameter take extremely hostile environments and that’s why we are glass sphere for Triton’s the only company in the U.S. that makes the windows for the 36000/3 Submersible.Orion spacecraft. We also make protective domes for cameras mirrors for missile systems, AINS windows for star naviga-and human occupancy vehicles to withstand harsh environ-ments and high pressures, such as the bottom of the Mariana tion and lighting components for aircraft like the F-16.The company has many academic and research customers. Trench.”Rayotek makes observation windows for pressurized tanks Sight glasses provide the opportunity to look into pressur-ized systems. “One of the most reliable instruments are our and vessels used for scienti? c analysis and testing. It’s also a own eyes, and sight glasses allow us to view into extreme major supplier to the oil and gas industry. “We provide down-pressure environments safely, be it a hydraulics system or the hole camera and pressure windows for Petroleum wellbores.”Raggio says it’s important to choose the right material for a deep sea,” says Raggio.speci? c application. There are signi? cant differences between Raggio says Rayotek is an engineering company special-izing in developing new technologies to support better, safer glass and crystalline materials such as sapphire and diamonds. When tolerances such as ? atness are very tight and tempera-viewing of hostile marine environments from deep sea drilling operations, mining and oceanographic research. Sapphire is tures are high, the choice of a crystalline material is superior actually a common material used much like glass, and found to glass because it will maintain its shape at higher tempera-in supermarket scanners and cell phone camera windows as tures, he says. Sapphire is colorless and optically clear, and can be grown into shapes such as sheets, ribbons, domes and well as missile guidance windows and periscopestubes with very smooth surface qualities, high purity and opti-“We use a lot of sapphire,” Raggio says. “We create it syn-thetically. It’s one of the strongest and most scratch resistant cal translucence. The company also works with borosilicate optical materials next to diamonds, and many times stronger glass, fused quartz and fused silica, and the more common soda lime glass. Raggio says San Diego is a high tech town. than glass.” “Because we are also an engineering ? rm, we can engineer “It’s a good place to bring talent; everybody wants to live here!” Raggio says Rayotek is part of the “Blue Tech” com-special windows for any application,” Raggio says. “We don’t just make the part, we engineer a solution. We help NASA munity, but not nearly as much as it could be. “The Blue Tech economy is large, yet still under appreciated and for Rayotek make windows safer for their spacecraft.”Rayotek products are used in many industrial applications, relatively untapped. We have many opportunities to gain more to include commercial refrigeration and heating systems, and business for Rayotek, but also to bring more Blue Tech busi-compressors for the petroleum and natural gas industries. The ness into San Diego at large by getting the word out of what the San Diego Blue Tech community has to offer.”company provides sight windows for furnaces and incinera-“We are part of the blue economy,” Raggio says. “We see tors, and windows for surface vehicles that must endure ex-potential to grow with our blue partners. They may not repre-tremely hostile environments.The military is a big end user, as well. The company makes sent large volumes, but they are de? nitely high end, high tech, sight windows for aircraft hydraulics, lens covers for sensors, and very cool.”October 201450 MTRMTR #8 (50-64).indd 50 MTR #8 (50-64).indd 50 10/10/2014 12:18:15 PM10/10/2014 12:18:15 PM