Navitar Expands In-House Optical Design Capabilities and Completes Sale of Coatings Division


Rochester, New York, February 11, 2009 - Navitar, Inc., a leading manufacturer of precision optical systems, announced today the recent sale of Navitar Coating Labs, located in Newport Beach, California. The decision was made to sell the coatings division based on the success of Navitar's recent acquisition of Special Optics, a Wharton, New Jersey firm, which has quadrupled the company's optical design capabilities and expanded Navitar's in-house optical coating capabilities.

Navitar's growth began one year ago with the purchase of Special Optics, a firm specializing in the optical design and rapid prototyping of complete electro-optical systems. Additional optical design personnel were added at both the Special Optics facilities and Navitar's Rochester, New York headquarters. Jeremy Goldstein, Co-President of Navitar comments, "The purchase of Special Optics was the beginning of a dramatic surge in our design efforts and the rapid development of next generation optical systems. Navitar is now one of the few optical companies that can seamlessly integrate optical and mechanical engineering, rapid prototyping, and volume custom lens production in one operation".

With in-house optical coating capabilities at the Special Optics facilities in New Jersey, the Navitar Coating Labs facility in Newport Beach, California became a non-core asset. Formerly GM Vacuum Coating Laboratory, Navitar Coating Labs was originally purchased by Navitar in 1998 and has remained a separate organization with its own customer base.

One hundred percent of the shares of Navitar Coating Labs were purchased for an undisclosed amount by its President, Dan Coursen, who has been with the company for over 35 years. The company name will soon be changed to Coursen Coating Labs, Inc. with a new website address of www.coursencoatinglabs.com.

"We are very pleased to have reached this agreement and to have sold Navitar Coating Labs to its management. The transition will be seamless to Navitar Coating Labs customers as they have always been serviced by the same core management group and will continue to receive the outstanding service they have come to expect", comments Julian Goldstein. Dan Corsen also adds, "I am extremely excited for this new opportunity to guide the company and continue to satisfy our customer's needs.

About Navitar

For over thirty six years, Navitar has been making highly repeatable precision optics and optical subsystems to help their customers improve efficiencies and yields in a wide variety of automated processes. Navitar optics, opto-mechanical sub-assemblies and opto-electronic system solutions are used in a variety of applications ranging from the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panel display inspection, solar photovoltaic cell inspection and laser scribing, DNA sequencing, fluorescence imaging, laser micromachining, Digital Radiography, laboratory automation and digital projection.

About Navitar Coating Labs

Navitar Coating Labs produces vacuum deposited and sputtered coatings for UV, visible and IR applications and offers an extensive line of stock and custom coating designs. They produce a wide range of specialty type coated products including coatings for high intensity lamp reflectors, large contrast enhancement protected silver mirrors, and mini mirrors for use in telecommunications. They also produce corrosion resistant gold coatings for use in fiber optics, telecommunications and military applications. In the UV industry, Navitar Coating Labs' specialized mirrors and filters are used to improve the brightness and output of existing UV optical systems. Their solderable coatings are produced using a sputtered process and allow glass to be soldered to metal for military, aerospace and other applications.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Amy Block
Navitar, Inc.
585.359.4000

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