The Carl Zeiss company and the unitary enterprise Vavilov Minsk Machinery Plant, the head enterprise in the Belorussian Opto-Mechanical Association (BelOMO), are the founders of Zeiss BelOMO joint venture.

Carl Zeiss, Inc.

Carl Zeiss company has its beginnings in 1846 when a mechanic Carl Zeiss started up his own business in the east of Thuringia. At that time the quality of optical devices depended on the experience of the workers who performed lens grinding and final assembly operations. Zeiss set an an agressive goal to form a series production of microscopes with reproduced quality.

The talented physicist and mathematician, Ernest Abbe, partnered with Zeiss in 1866. With his theoretical researches he took the manufacturer to a new level of capability in the desigh and manufacturing of high performance optical elements and systems. In 1881 the glass chemist Otto Shot joined the Zeiss workshop and by collaboration in improving glass formulas pushed the limits of image quaity of that time. The three pioneers laid the foundations for further Carl Zeiss company’s breakthrough in the image quality.

Nowadays many Carl Zeiss divisions are leading global providers in the optics and optoelectronics product areas. Carl Zeiss company is headquatered in Oberkohen, Baden-Wurttemberg (Germany). Its global service infrastructure includes sales offices in 30 countries and direct operations in Europe, North America, Mexico and Asia. Carl Zeiss markets its produts in more than 100 countrues. After recession period the company hasn’t lost its ramping ability and maintains profitability. The number of worldwide high-skilled employees approximates 14, 000. The company fiscal 2001 annual sales revenues reached 2,3 bln.dollars.

Carl Zeiss offers best-in-class advance technology solutions to the semiconductor, optoelectronics technology, life sciences, health care and eye care industries, including consumer and sports optics and industrial solutions as well. Focus on these high-growth, hifh-technology markets uniquely positions Carl Zeiss in the competitive realm.

The company offers a broad array of value-based products and system solutions. The following two highly productive sections provide comprehensive services to semiconductor and optoelectronic technology markets offering:

• micro lithography systems for semiconductor equipment, inspection systems for semiconductor manufacture, electro-beam systems as well as laser optics and electro optical systems. These production sections form the semicontuctor division which is a separate business entity, Carl Zeiss SMT Inc.
• the optoelectronic department provides lenses for photo and motion picture equipment, planetariums and has applications expertise in image projecting and spectral sensoring.

Microscopy section addresses the needs of life science markets. It offers a comprehensive line of light microscopes and image processing systems, system solutions for laser scanning microscopy and fluorescent correlation spectroscopy (measurement of molecules movement). The products range is augmented by optical readers and screening systems for fast serial research of biologically active substances.

Carl Zeiss achieved significant success in the growing health care market due to its surgery equipment division. Over the next 50 years after the development of the first surgery microscope Carl Zeiss pioneered the field to become a full line source for microsurgery instrumentation and other related products.

Carl Zeiss serves the eye care market through its two manufacturing divisions that offer medical instrumentation to ophthalmologists, optometrists and opticians and goods for consumer use.

• Carl Zeiss Meditek, Inc. is commited to providing eye research instrumentation and medical lasers. It supplies the full range of system solutions for the most widespread ophthalmological diseases and has its share of the global market.
• the optics operation with Zeiss logo offers best-of-breed eyeglass lenses, sports optics, binoculars and hunting optics.

The Carl Zeiss mechanical production division offers a broad variety of precision measuring systems for different manufacturing applications and also provides data measuring services.

The unitary enterprise Minsk Vavilov Machinery Plant

The Minsk Vavilov Machinery Plant started out in 1957 as a camera and optics processing machines manufacturer. As its product offering and production volumes expanded a Belorussian Opto-Mechanical Association (BelOMO) was formed on its manufacturing facilities.

BelOMO enjoyed leading position in the former USSR optics markets providing civil and military industry-specific solutions. The partnering plants specialized in specific equipment manufacturing.Minsk Vavilov Machinery Plant offered a full range of high-complex opto-mechanical and electro-optical devices, including products for aerospace industry. Zenith factory located in Vileika was the only camera manufacturer in the former USSR. Slide film projectors were fabricated in Diaprojector in Rogachev. The plant Svet located in Zhlobin offered image reproduction equipment and photo enlargers.

To date the Belorussian Opto-Mechanical Association employs more than 5,000 highly qualified professionals. The BelOMO factories occupy territory of about 220,000 m² with more than 52,000 m² of workshops areas.