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We are relatively routinely seeing oil inside of our Zeiss 63x oil immersion lenses. You end up with a bead of oil inside that acts as a lens itself and the lens is unusable.

As far as we can tell, it usually happens after prolonged use over many years. We are at a point now where our lenses are "old" and Zeiss cannot repair them because the parts are no longer available. It costs us $6-8,000 to replace them. With 13 microscopes we have one lens failing every 6-12 months or so. I can't afford to keep replacing these lenses and with this becoming a "routine" occurrence I want to seek out advice about why this might be happening. Our users are well trained and I don't think it is neglect by them. I think this is due to routine use.

I have two questions:


1)      "Is there a defect in how these lenses are made?"

For example, perhaps the seals on the front lenses degrade over time - we inspect our lenses regularly and many that have had oil inside have no obvious damage by visual inspection. Maybe they need to be resealed every year or two, maybe an internal seal degrades over time? Preventative maintenance of these lenses or a change in how they are manufactured would certainly cost less than $8,000 I would think.



2)      "Do people have a similar problem with oil immersion lenses from the other major manufacturers?"

I look forward to some input here.

Sincerely,

Claire

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