DoD Ge Recycling Services

Department of Defense Germanium Reclaim/Recycling Services

E. R. Precision Optical Corporation (ERPOC), an Orlando, FL based HUBZone facility has recently established a new program to locate, reclaim and rework germanium found in many of our U.S. military & aerospace optical components. As an additional step in our vertical integration to supply U.S. DoD contractors advanced infrared optics, ERPOC has added the recycling center to turn old parts into new.  We accept germanium components of any size, shape and condition.  If you have scrap parts, damaged, stockpiled or decommissioned infrared (IR) transmissive windows and lenses we will buy those items at the best scrap prices.

Examples of germanium based components found in many of our military platforms include:

Windows of various sizes, flat and dome shaped, recognized by their mirror-like surfaces found in the housings for FLIR components such as laser guidance, missile targeting & night-vision/thermal sensing device and other and other surveillance applications.  These military vehicles typically have several germanium optics; M1 tanks, Apache helicopters, AF fighter jets, Naval ships.

E.R. Precision Optical is licensed to properly handle all necessary demilling and hazardous material removal and disposal.  Many of the older windows are coated with Thorium, a hazardous material.  ERPOC is the only NRC licensed facility in the nation that keeps all these steps under one roof.  We will remove Thorium coatings, dispose of the toxic waste and rework the recovered material into new products.  Cleaned germanium is refined (processed to remove impurities) and then can be grown into new ingots (crystals) for use in new advanced infrared targeting components for our military.

By providing all these steps in-house, E.R. Precision Optical is able to significantly reduce the cost for material used to manufacture new optical components.  There is less dependency to purchase new raw material found on the market at extremely high prices.  With China’s growing control of the world’s Rare Earth’s and specialty materials, germanium has become excessively overpriced to U.S. manufacturers.  With our program, ERPOC is able to not only control cost to a certain degree, but al

so as critical to our U.S. DoD contractors, we provided consistent quality and availability of material.

The benefits of your facility/agency working with us to recycle germanium are many -

     • Additional revenues to fund your future activities

     • Removal of hazardous materials, often stored many years

     • Support of DoD budget concerns (lower cost of new products)

     • Assure our valuable resources remain in the US

     • Continue to support our US war fighters with advanced weapons

     • Reaching governmental performance goals working with a SBA/HUBZone association