Thorlabs Performance™ Optical Breadboards are 2.4" thick and provide high stiffness and standard damping, making them an ideal solution for general lab purposes and a favorite OEM breadboard.
Key Specifications
Imperial Breadboards
Metric Breadboards
Flatness
±0.15 mm (±0.006") Over Any 0.3 m2
Mounting Holes
1/4"-20 Tapped Holes on 1" Centers
M6 Tapped Holes on 25 mm Centers
Distance From Edge to First Holes
2.0" on All Sides
50 mm on All Sides
Features
Athermalized Design for Excellent Thermal Stability
Low Deflection Under Load
Plated Steel Honeycomb Core and Internal Damping Provide Both Static and Dynamic Rigidity
Magnetic Stainless Steel Top and Bottom Plates
Excellent Surface Flatness, Achieved by Using a Single State-of-the-Art Material and a Thermal Bonding Process
Choosing an Optical Breadboard
When choosing an optical breadboard, two main features should be considered: Stiffness and Damping.
Stiffness Thorlabs offers two levels of stiffness: High and Enhanced. While strongly correlated to the thickness of the breadboard, the differences in stiffness translate to a different deflection under load. The higher the stiffness, the better the ability of the breadboard to resist bending when a load or force is applied to the breadboard. As such, when placing a heavy load in the center of the breadboard, a high stiffness breadboard will deflect more than an enhanced stiffness breadboard. This deflection can create misalignment between two components on opposite ends of the breadboard. This feature is especially important when, for example, conducting experiments which require sliding optical setups across the breadboard while maintaining a straight optical axis.
Damping Thorlabs offers two levels of damping: Standard and Enhanced. The damping of the breadboard is the behavior of the breadboard when noise (typically from instrumentation or acoustic noise) is introduced on the breadboard. Ideally, a breadboard would be able to dissipate energy from such noise by behaving as a single rigid surface, i.e. the entire breadboard would move, as one piece, up or down without resonating. However, when noise is introduced on a breadboard surface with low damping, such as that generated by an optical chopper, the breadboard can resonate, causing temporary differential changes on the surface. Such temporary resonance can be harmful when, for example, aligning beams across a breadboard in a free-space experiment.
High Stiffness Our Performance Breadboards incorporate a double plate (top and bottom), single-honeycomb design, providing excellent stiffness and dynamic rigidity. The top layer consists of a stainless steel top plate. The second layer adds the main steel honeycomb structure and the stainless steel bottom plate. The main honeycomb core is fabricated from strips of precision-formed plated steel, which is bonded together with an epoxy adhesive with high tensile strength.
Excellent Surface Flatness Breadboard flatness is critically important during many experimental setups. Lack of local flatness requires readjustment of components for height variations across the breadboard and can cause component "wobble." Thorlabs' breadboards offer unsurpassed flatness due to the high-precision magnetic stainless-steel plates which are specially handled to maintain superior flatness throughout the manufacturing process. A unique thermal bonding process ensures that stress is not induced during manufacturing, thereby retaining the flatness of the top plate.
Athermalized Design Thorlabs' breadboards employ matching magnetic stainless steel for both the top and bottom plates. This unique athermalized design eliminates any thermal bowing effects caused by temperature variations.
Finish & Construction
Breadboard Thickness
60 mm (2.4")
Flatness
±0.15 mm (±0.006") Over Any 0.3 m2
Construction
Double Plate, Single Honeycomb Core
Top and Bottom Plates
Magnetic Stainless Steel, 5 mm Thick, Matched Materials for Athermalized Design
Core
High-Density Plated Steel Honeycomb
Damping
Proprietary Broadband Damping
Sides
Black Laminated-Steel Sides, Slightly Inset
Finish
Top Plate is Brush Finished
Mounting
Mounting Holes
Imperial Breadboards: 1/4"-20 Tapped Holes on 1 inch Centers Metric Breadboards: M6 Tapped Holes on 25 mm Centers
Distance from Edge to First Hole
Imperial Breadboards: 2.0" on all Sides Metric Breadboards: 50 mm on all Sides
Maximum Screw Depth
6 mm from Breadboard Surface
Part Number
Dimensions (L x W x H)
Unpackaged Mass (kg)
Unpackaged Weight (lbs)
Imperial
PBH11101
1' x 1' x 2.4"
10.00
22.0
PBH11102
2' x 1' x 2.4"
19.00
41.8
PBH11103
3' x 1' x 2.4"
28.00
61.6
PBH11104
4' x 1' x 2.4"
37.00
81.4
PBH11122
2' x 1.5' x 2.4"
26.00
57.2
PBH11105
2' x 2' x 2.4"
36.00
79.2
PBH11106
3' x 2' x 2.4"
52.00
114.4
PBH11107
4' x 2' x 2.4"
69.00
151.8
PBH11108
5' x 2' x 2.4"
86.00
189.2
PBH11109
6' x 2' x 2.4"
107.00
235.4
PBH11110
2.5' x 2.5' x 2.4"
56.00
123.2
PBH11111
3' x 2.5' x 2.4"
67.00
147.4
PBH11112
4' x 2.5' x 2.4"
88.00
193.6
PBH11113
5' x 2.5' x 2.4"
107.00
235.4
PBH11114
3' x 3' x 2.4"
79.00
173.8
PBH11115
4' x 3' x 2.4"
103.00
226.6
PBH11116
5' x 3' x 2.4"
127.00
279.4
PBH11117
6' x 3' x 2.4"
155.00
341.00
PBH11120
6' x 4' x 2.4"
215.00
473.00
PBH11121
8' x 4' x 2.4"
261.00
575.38
Metric
PBH51501
300 mm x 300 mm x 60 mm
11.00
24.2
PBH51502
600 mm x 300 mm x 60 mm
18.0
39.6
PBH51528
600 mm x 450 mm x 60 mm
26
57.2
PBH51503
900 mm x 300 mm x 60 mm
28.00
61.6
PBH51504
1200 mm x 300 mm x 60 mm
37.00
81.4
PBH51528
600 mm x 450 mm x 60 mm
26.00
57.2
PBH51505
600 mm x 600 mm x 60 mm
35.0
77.0
PBH51506
900 mm x 600 mm x 60 mm
52.0
114.4
PBH51507
1200 mm x 600 mm x 60 mm
68.0
149.6
PBH51508
1500 mm x 600 mm x 60 mm
84.00
184.8
PBH51509
1800 mm x 600 mm x 60 mm
105.00
231.0
PBH51510
750 mm x 750 mm x 60 mm
52.00
114.4
PBH51511
900 mm x 750 mm x 60 mm
67.00
147.4
PBH51512
1200 mm x 750 mm x 60 mm
88.00
193.6
PBH51513
1500 mm x 750 mm x 60 mm
109.00
239.8
PBH51514
900 mm x 900 mm x 60 mm
79.00
173.8
PBH51515
1200 mm x 900 mm x 60 mm
105.00
231.0
PBH51516
1500 mm x 900 mm x 60 mm
120.00
264.0
PBH51517
1800 mm x 900 mm x 60 mm
155.00
341.0
PBH51522
2000 mm x 1000 mm x 60 mm
183.00
403.0
PBH51523
1250 mm x 1250 mm x 60 mm
144.00
316.8
PBH51524
1500 mm x 1250 mm x 60 mm
165.00
363.75
PBH51525
1800 mm x 1250 mm x 60 mm
215.00
473.0
PBH51526
2000 mm x 1250 mm x 60 mm
237.00
512.4
*These weights are approximate and are subject to change. The information is only to be used as a guideline.
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Posted Comments:
Poster:
Posted Date: 2010-06-02 18:23:39.0
Response from Javier at Thorlabs to bastiaan.bergman: There are no clearance holes on the Performance series breadboards. However, there are (4) 1/4"-20 threaded mounting holes, each one located at one of the corners, 2" away from the edge of the breadboard (See Documents & Drawings tab).
Poster: bastiaan.bergman
Posted Date: 2010-06-02 14:07:18.0
Are there clearance holes to mount this breadboard on anotherone? What size holes and what locations?
Thanks.
Poster: jjessop
Posted Date: 2009-07-10 09:39:26.0
We will start manufacturing all PBH5x5xx with a 25mm boarder and all PBH1*1** with a ~1" boarder, once all the drawings have been updated and added to the website.
Poster: jmills
Posted Date: 2009-07-09 17:04:08.0
It is limited by the design of the breadboard. This is one thing we are looking at during the current redesign.
Poster: acable
Posted Date: 2009-07-09 13:29:37.0
The very large border on the breadboards, especially the 12" by 12" seem like a waste of valuable usable space.
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