Dutch SME supplying adaptive optical systems and laser beam-shaping hardware for industrial surface processing and AI-driven manufacturing metrology.
Flexible Optical BV (trading as OKO Tech) is a Dutch SME specializing in adaptive optical components — primarily deformable mirrors, wavefront sensors, and multi-beam laser systems used to control and shape light with high precision. In H2020, they contributed their core optical hardware and beam-shaping know-how to laser surface processing applications including polishing, structuring, and thin film deposition. More recently they brought their optical sensing capabilities into digitized manufacturing environments, supporting metrology and inspection workflows aligned with Industry 4.0. They operate as a precision optics supplier and technology integrator within larger industrial R&D consortia.
In ultraSURFACE (2016-2019), OKO contributed multi-beam and intensity-distribution control for high-throughput laser surface processing — a direct application of their core deformable mirror technology.
ultraSURFACE covered polishing, structuring, and thin film processing via laser, with OKO supplying the dynamic optical systems that make high-throughput processing viable.
MADEin4 (2019-2022) positioned OKO in Industry 4.0 metrology for electronics and semiconductor manufacturing, extending their optical sensing into AI-assisted quality control pipelines.
MADEin4 keywords — cyber-physical systems, edge computing, AI platform — indicate OKO is learning to embed their optical subsystems into connected, data-driven factory environments.
Their first H2020 project (ultraSURFACE, 2016-2019) was squarely in their home territory: laser optics, beam shaping, and surface processing — pure photonics hardware applied to manufacturing. By 2019, with MADEin4, the keywords shifted dramatically toward metrology, inspection, AI, and cyber-physical systems, suggesting OKO is deliberately repositioning their optical sensors as data sources within digitized factories rather than standalone instruments. The trajectory is clear: from precision light control toward intelligent optical sensing embedded in Industry 4.0 infrastructure.
OKO appears to be bridging their established adaptive optics hardware into AI-enhanced inspection and metrology roles — making them an increasingly relevant partner for smart manufacturing and digitized quality control projects.
OKO has participated in both projects as a consortium partner, never as coordinator, which is consistent with the profile of a specialist component supplier that joins large industrial consortia to provide a specific optical subsystem. Both projects were large-scale (IA and RIA schemes), and across just two projects they accumulated 59 unique partners — suggesting they work comfortably in complex, multi-stakeholder industrial consortia. They bring a narrow but hard-to-replace capability, which makes them a low-friction, high-value add-on partner rather than a project driver.
Despite only two projects, OKO has built connections with 59 unique partners across 11 countries — a broad European footprint that reflects participation in large industrial consortia. No geographic concentration is discernible from the data, suggesting they engage wherever the photonics and manufacturing sector leads.
OKO Tech is one of very few SMEs globally that both designs and manufactures adaptive optical components (deformable mirrors, wavefront correctors) at a commercial scale — a capability normally found only in large photonics institutes. This dual identity as a hardware maker and R&D partner lets them contribute real, deployable components to research projects rather than just designs or simulations. For consortium builders in laser processing, semiconductor inspection, or smart manufacturing, OKO fills a specialist optical hardware slot that most partners cannot replicate internally.
