IRradiance Glass, Inc. earns Million-Dollar Boost from Angel Investor to Expand Manufacturing Facility at UCF

ORLANDO, Fla. --- IRradiance Glass, Inc., which manufactures chalcogenide glasses for applications in infrared optical components and optical systems, recently completed a $1 million agreement with a private investor. J. David Musgraves, PhD, president and chief executive officer of IRradiance Glass (“IRradiance”), said the capital infusion will fund new equipment to expand the company’s manufacturing operations at the University of Central Florida, where IRradiance Glass is a member of the UCF Business Incubation Program’s Photonics Incubator. IRradiance Glass manufactures a special glass that allows infrared light to pass through it, Musgraves explained. "Infrared technologies impact people’s lives in the areas of security and defense, medical and environmental sensing, communications and entertainment,” Musgraves stated. "All products and systems that utilize infrared light, such as night vision goggles or video game motion sensors, require infrared-transparent optics to manipulate that light. There are many materials that are used in infrared optical systems, yet only chalcogenide glasses have the flexibility to be tailored to the huge range of desired applications," said Musgraves. Irradiance Glass is currently pursuing seven separate contracts valued at more than $2.5 million. The firm, with four employees and manufacturing operations in the Physics Department at UCF, is working to secure funding from a wide variety of sources including business to business contracts, individual sales, academic subcontracts, and government small business grants, Musgraves added.