History 

Lightwave Enterprises Inc. (LEI) was incorporated in April 2000. Initially, the company was located in the Lennox Technology Center, an incubator facility of High Tech Rochester, with a small optics shop at a separate location. The first revenue came from providing engineering expertise and project management to a few companies with optical needs. Within ten months, the business had grown substantially; enough to justify taking the aggressive position of consolidating the operations and acquiring manufacturing capability. The company graduated from the incubator facility to the newly available Rochester Technology Park in May 2001 and became the fastest graduate in the history of the High Tech Rochester Incubator.

By September 2001, with the purchase of state-of-the-art electric Injection Molding Machines, customized for high precision plastic optics, and a high capacity Box Coating Machine, Lightwave’s manufacturing capability was nearly complete. Later in April 2002, a Precision Single Point Diamond Turning lathe was added to enable the company to prototype plastic lenses and create aspheric tool inserts for molding operations in house. This completed the technologies necessary to fully ramp up to production.

After a brief slowdown during the recessionary period of mid-2002, the company's sales began to grow dramatically. Business in 2003 showed so much improvement that in January 2004, the company upgraded its facilities and moved to a more modern facility within the Rochester Technology Park.  Lightwave relocated one more time in 2005, where the company now operates from our 20,000 square foot facility on Mt. Read Blvd. in Rochester, New York.

A large percentage of Lightwave’s projects continue to be in the Research and Development or New Product Development area of business. Our customers are highly specialized leaders in the scanner, clinical diagnostics, illumination, datacom, office products, defense, and aerospace industries.