Trip to Solmes

[Bill Grimwood <bgrim@garply.com>]

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I was asked several months ago to share my notes on my trip to Solmes with
the rest of you LUGers.  I haven't until now because I have been promised
over and over that it would be published in the LHSA Viewfinder.  This
article was submitted to the Viewfinder editor two years ago with many
photos to illustrate it, but it has not been published I assume because I
am not considered politically correct.

This article is now history rather than news.  I don't claim to be a writer
and I can take constructive criticism.  Let me know if you thing it was
worthy of publication.

 Here it is.
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In May of this year while on vacation in Austria and Germany my
wife and I had the pleasure of visiting the Leica facility in
Solmes.  First we visited Wetzlar and saw the old historic Leitz
buildings there. We had arranged for the tour earlier.  The new
facility in Solmes is a very modern looking one story building
painted white with a Big red Leica logo.  It looked very modern
just as my imagination told me it should.



The facility is approximately 130,000 square feet and it
contains the Leica Academy as well as development and design
departments and production.  From the parts warehouse to
manufacturing, almost everything is under one roof.



We were warmly greeted in the reception area and I ogled at the
Leica Family Tree located on one wall.  Also on display were
cut-away models of current cameras and a giant M6.



Our tour guide was Mr. von Zowlidz. The tour consisted of
walking down two long corridors which effectively divide the
building into three separate parts. The walls in these corridors
are decorated with large photographs made by well known
contemporary photographers who use Leicas.   I had hoped to see
a lot of the M and R assembly but most of that is done in the
plant in Portugal and only the final assembly is done in Solmes.



Many areas were observable only through large glass windows
because these areas are clean rooms with the employees dressed
in white uniforms and of course there was no admittance of
visitors.  This is why you can be assured your new Leica has no
foreign material in it when it is delivered.



We did not see rows and rows of robots assembling equipment as I
expect you would see in Japan.  Instead we saw uniformly
dressed, skilled technicians setting at rows of workbenches
doing the work very carefully by hand.  This is not to say that
they use no robots because a few are in use in the lens coating
and polishing area.



It was easy to see that the Leica philosophy of precision is
maintained only with well trained highly skilled employees doing
the work by hand.  Leica does not place an emphasis on full
automation and large assembly lines but instead on quality and
precision.



We did see lens making in some detail.  No liquid glass pouring
was being done as that is done elsewhere. We saw from start to
finish how lens elements are ground, polished, coated, cemented
and assembled into  assemblies for the finished product. 



Long rows of lens grinding and polishing machines were in
operation the day we visited.  Many machines hold numerous lens
blanks that are simultaneously polished.  Each element  is
extensively tested. Instruments are used that can detect any
surface deviation of less than 0.0001mm.  Lenses which do not
meet these tolerances are rejected.



 Everywhere we saw computers in use in the testing area.  Many
of the testing instruments were developed and built by Leica as
they were not available on the market anywhere in the optical
industry.  Centering of elements is done very accurately with a
laser and other electronic control equipment.  This is a crucial
part of lens assembly.  



One coating machine was set up so that visitors could see the
coating being sprayed on a rotating lens element in a vacuum
chamber.  Some lens surfaces have up to eight layers of coating
and this process is computer controlled.  The mirror of the R6.2
and R7 has seventeen layers of coating applied to it.



   One test that impressed me was the rotating of a lens while a
slide was being projected through it and a technician observing
the projected image on an enormous screen.  The image did not
move at all and the technician informed me that if it shifted
ever so slightly the lens would be rejected.  We saw the
Elmarit-R 180mm f2.8 lens being tested in this manner.



Everything in the process was subjected to constant inspection
and tolerance checks.  Components made by outside contractors
such as the body shells are subjected to the stringent
inspections also, in order to maintain the strict quality
control. 



Leica does not fit lenses into plastic mounts like the rest of
the industry does.  Lens mounts are made of time-tested metals,
a mixture of brass and aluminum.  The longer life of metal in
comparison to plastic is undisputed.  



In the final finish and assembly area we saw R6.2s, R7s, M6s,
Binoculars, and Apo-Televid Scopes being finished, inspected and
packed for shipment.



The Solmes facility also contains a large repair department.  We
saw the lens repair area and I was surprised to learn that they
still repair lenses for screw mount cameras.  Any lens they have
ever manufactured can still be sent in for repair.  



Everyone we met was very friendly and did not mind us looking
over their shoulder and taking photos.  Our tour lasted
approximately two hours and we thoroughly enjoyed it. This area
of Germany is very beautiful and we look forward to visiting
Germany again.


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