poLight ASA has launched a new off-the-shelf (OTS) portfolio of MLens® M12 focusing lenses designed to bring tunable optics capabilities to industrial machine vision applications. The announcement, timed with SPIE Photonics West 2026, highlights the company’s efforts to make adaptive focus easier and more accessible for embedded systems and OEM developers.
Based on poLight’s proprietary TLens® tunable optics technology, the MLens® family lets design engineers quickly set and change focal distances without needing traditional mechanical focus mechanisms. Early product availability includes 6 mm and 7.5 mm focal lengths, with 13 mm and 19 mm versions expected later in the first half of 2026.
This variable-focus capability can help machine vision designers address challenges around object range, depth flexibility, and scene variation without swapping fixed lenses or adding complex hardware. The lenses are compatible with standard M12 mounts and are supported by a development evaluation kit, including a lens driver board that connects via USB to a PC or Mac for rapid prototyping and testing.
poLight has also teamed with ecosystem partners such as Sunex, Inc. and Image Quality Labs to support lens design, manufacturing, and evaluation tools, helping OEMs accelerate deployment of advanced imaging systems at scale.
With the industrial machine vision market projected to grow significantly in the coming years, driven in part by AI-based inspection and automation needs, MLens® adds a new dimension of optical flexibility that could reduce design complexity and speed time to market for integrators and camera manufacturers alike.
