GREENE – Most people hear “optics” and think eye glasses or camera lenses, but that is a far cry from the niche market served by Bill Kutz and the business, K&S Optics, which he recently relocated to Greene.

“We don’t do a lot of consumer work,” Kutz explained. That’s not to say that the general public isn’t familiar with his work.

“I guess our claim (to fame) is all the shuttles have our optics on them,” he said, explaining that the robotic arms on each of NASA’s space shuttles employ between 16 to 18 lenses produced by his company.

In fact, the commercial and precision grade cylindrical lenses, flat optics, beam-splitters and prisms Kutz and his team craft are used as components in the aerospace and defense industries as well as high-tech medical equipment and scientific instruments.

“They go into bigger assemblies,” he explained. According to Kutz, K&S Optics is one of only six to eight companies in the country which produce some of these optical components.

Kutz has 28 years of experience and an excellent reputation in the highly specialized field. A past board member of both the American Precision Optics Manufacturing Association and the Optics and Electro-Optical Standards Council, he has played a key role in writing standards for the optical industry. He also has a reputation for being creative and innovative.