Precision Optics Capacity Grows in China

INDUSTRY NEWS · PRECISION OPTICS · SEPTEMBER 2026

Forecam Optics is redirecting about CNY 110 million of raised funds into precision optical components and aerospace lenses, while a CNY 200 million camera-structure-parts plant takes shape in Lianzhou. Both announcements describe the same shift: visible-light optics capacity in China is being expanded deliberately, in glass and in metal.

Precision optical components and the metal parts that hold them are two different supply chains, and in September 2026 both were funded in China within three days of each other. Forecam Optics announced on the evening of 17 September that it would redirect roughly CNY 110 million of remaining raised funds into two projects — precision optical component industrialisation and aerospace lens development. Separately, Foshan Huian Digital Technology signed an investment agreement with the Lianzhou municipal government for a CNY 200 million high-precision intelligent optical camera structural parts project. For a buyer building a camera or imaging product, that means the glass and the mechanics are both getting more capacity.

Forecam Optics: CNY 87 million into precision components, CNY 30 million into aerospace lenses

The larger of the two projects is a multi-domain precision optical component industrialisation project with total planned investment of CNY 87.0416 million, to be implemented at the company’s existing sites in Mawei (Fuzhou) and Fuqing, with a 12-month construction period. The stated output is mass production of moulded lenses, spherical and aspherical lenses, and optical flats, aimed at consumer electronics, automotive optics and optical communications.

The second project is a CNY 30 million aerospace high-performance optical lens R&D programme, and the way it is split is worth reading closely. It is fully expensed rather than capitalised, and it breaks into CNY 9 million for unmanned aerial vehicle electro-optical payloads, CNY 13.5 million for space electro-optical payloads and CNY 7.5 million for large-aperture high-performance lenses. Expensed R&D on that scale says the company expects near-term volume in consumer, automotive and telecom optics while treating airborne and space payloads as a longer-horizon position.

Note what the component list actually covers: moulded lenses plus ground-and-polished spheres and aspheres plus flats is the same family of parts that feeds camera modules, machine-vision objectives and optical sub-assemblies. A capacity announcement in that family is a signal about price and lead time for the whole visible-light segment, not just for one vendor’s customers. If you are currently buying aspheres, our aspheric versus spherical lens RFQ guide covers the tolerance questions that decide whether a moulded part is genuinely interchangeable with a polished one.

Lianzhou: CNY 200 million for camera structural parts

Huian Digital Technology’s project is located in the Lianzhou Haiteng Intelligent Equipment Industrial Park and involves purchasing a 12,000 square metre plant. Phase one installs 120 high-precision CNC machining centres. Phase two adds intelligent quick-change fixturing, automated loading and unloading robots, and coordinate-measuring-machine inspection equipment. The stated product directions are metal brackets for smartphone cameras, precision structural parts for automotive autonomous-driving cameras, and camera components for aerial and industrial drones. Full production is targeted at an annual output value of CNY 300 million.

Structural parts rarely appear in an optics conversation, but they are usually the schedule-critical item in a camera programme. The lens can be perfect and the module will still fail if the bracket drifts with temperature, if the thread pitch does not hold, or if flatness is not controlled at the sensor plane. A 120-machine CNC commitment is a capacity statement about metal, not glass — and it is aimed squarely at the automotive and drone programmes where tolerance discipline is non-negotiable.

Visible-Light Optical Lenses →

What it means for buyers of visible-light optics

• Two qualification conversations, not one. Glass and optomechanics are qualified on different criteria — optical performance and coating durability on one side, dimensional and thermal stability on the other. Run them as separate supplier approvals.
• Moulded and polished aspheres are not interchangeable. Moulding brings unit cost down and volume up; polished or hybrid processes still win where surface form error and mid-spatial-frequency roughness are tight. Ask which process is quoted.
• Automotive and drone programmes set the tolerance bar. If your destination market is a vehicle or an aircraft, specifiy to that standard from the first RFQ rather than upgrading later.
• Capacity expansion is a timing opportunity. New capacity usually means an opening for tooling and first-article approval at better commercial terms than a line that is already full.

Sourcing checklist: precision optics and optomechanics

• Specify the optical function and the mechanical interface in the same drawing package — wavelength band, focal length, F-number, back focal length, mounting datum and thread standard.
• For moulded lenses, ask about mould life, cycle time, and how refractive index and geometry are held stable across the mould’s life.
• For aspheres, ask whether the part is moulded, ground and polished, or hybrid, and request surface form error plus roughness figures, not just a fringe reading.
• For windows and flats, specify parallelism, surface quality and coating per wavelength band — our optical window RFQ specification guide lists the fields buyers most often leave out.
• For metal structural parts, specify material grade, coefficient-of-thermal-expansion match to the optics, flatness at the sensor plane, and insert or thread standards.
• Require first-article inspection plus a control plan before mass production, and agree how deviations are dispositioned.

Sources and disclosure

Figures are compiled from public internet sources dated September 2026: Chinese optical-industry trade media reporting on Forecam Optics’ 17 September 2026 announcement of redirected raised funds, and on the investment agreement between Foshan Huian Digital Technology and the Lianzhou municipal government. Investment amounts, construction schedules, equipment counts and output-value targets are the companies’ or local authorities’ published statements and describe plans, not completed capacity. Sourcing guidance in this article is editorial analysis. TUOLAN TRADE is not affiliated with the companies mentioned; company and product names belong to their respective owners.