At Lumetrics, innovation starts with thoughtful engineering and a deep understanding of innovative systems. Our success is driven by a talented, diverse team that cares deeply about the work they do and the impact it has. From advancing technology to supporting our customers, that commitment shows up every day, especially within our engineering group.At the heart of that effort is Dave, who plays a key role in designing tailored solutions for Lumetrics’ customers and partners. Keep reading to learn more about Dave’s work and how he helps turn complex challenges into practical, high-performance solutions.
Q&A with Dave Compertore
Walk me through a typical day at Lumetrics.
I do a lot of different things. Necessity pulls you in all directions. I start the day on one project, work on 3 other projects, end the day on another—it can be fun or frustrating. Today I’m enjoying CAD work; sometimes Zemax work. I always find building a lab setup fun, like tinkertoys. Every day is different, with priorities from internal and external customers.
What challenges are you working on now?
I’m designing and setting up a disc probe for a contact lens manufacturing customer, and a polarization bench for our transparent armor contract. I’m drawing a fixture to power the setup, 3D printing it and building it in. Both of those projects are new functionality for major programs—we haven’t done a polarization measurement bench yet. This particular tool will be used to measure stress on transparent armor. The idea is that the tool will be integrated into the instrument that stresses armor, watch it twist/pull and measure the stress.
You just came back from the ANSI committee meeting; can you tell me about that?
Yes! I was at the contact lens ANSI committee meeting, which looks to standardize everything about contact lenses, including nomenclature, and lot of the time was spent just on that. What does it mean when lens has toricity, and what word should we use internationally? An interesting topic came up about differentiating between normative conformity and guidance. The ANSI committee looks to head off people from using guidance as laws and rules by carefully defining their own guidance in the standard. When guidance is misunderstood and applied in other countries, it can create an uneven playing field internationally. I’ve seen that in my past work at Bausch and Lomb, when Chinese lab glass standards were pushed as the only physical standard to represent contact lenses when tested in metrology—but that guidance was made to apply to glass, which has nowhere near the refractive index of contact lens. We also had the chance to introduce LUMOS-V to the ANSI committee! Greg Williby introduced Todd Szarlan of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. Their team has worked closely with Lumetrics, and we were given a few moments to introduce LUMOS-V.
I could see the faces of the other representatives—it felt like a recognition that something has to happen and this is very likely the solution. It’s an important step in the process of changing today’s standards of quality.
What drives your work?
Enjoyment. I always try to enjoy what I’m doing. Given the challenges of engineering, it’s hard not to enjoy it. It’s still fresh—that’s the beauty of optics. I’ve been at this a long time and I can’t tell you how many industries have come and gone. My dad worked in lithography. Optics is the new thing every year. Something about optics is the next challenge. I think it’s because we all have eyes, and we interact with the world intimately with light every day.
What are you proud of this year?
I am very proud of John (Hart)’s efforts in pursuing the ARL and MCMS contracts. He’s been working toward this for years, and I’m not sure I would have had the patience or energy and he did it. It’s exciting to see it come together, with work that will challenge each and every one of us.
You just launched the new wavefront sensor line…tell us about your role in that product development.
I’m the tribal knowledge leader in that. I’ve been both the customer, developer, and through the years I know how to use it, know the nuts and bolts of it from the manufacturing and build of it, worked hand in hand with software guys to avoid going afield.
What are your peripheral jobs at Lumetrics?
Quality, quality documents, quality training. I am the tribal knowledge leader in quality. I came from B&L and Alcon, both FDA-regulated industries. I was exposed to a strong quality atmosphere and brought it here. I’m a self-taught quality guy. I’ve helped to make it practical in our company. I’ve also really come to enjoy creating videos—before I did that, I would have said I wouldn’t do it or wouldn’t like it but I like the creative thought process, and I get to think how do I do this so that someone will be interested and convey the information they need. If they’re one and the same, it’s a good video.
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Want to work with Dave and the rest of the Lumetrics experts to find the perfect solution for your non-contact thickness or wavefront measurement needs? Contact us today.