It's really a combination of market research plus design plus engineering. This is the beginning of a development journey where lots of research goes into existing products, then iterating on innovations.
Designs do not happen in a vacuum. Designs happen because of an idea. We've manufactured hundreds of sight glass products customized for an application. With every new application, we learn. Customer's requirements are getting more interesting and more challenging. In one particular application the challenge was to design a sight window that holds 20,000 psi of pressure at 400 degrees Celsius temperature, at the same time. It's like asking for an investment that pays high dividend and offers high growth, all in one. In the world of process observation windows, there is a choice to make between designs for temperature or designs for high pressure. It's hard to combine both requirements into a sight window. Either the sight glass would self-destruct or it would be pricey with a long manufacturing lead time.
Our challenge is not design, or engineering, actually. Surprisingly, the challenge is in pricing of piece parts and lead time from their respective manufacturers. What needs to happen is market demand. This creates volume orders, which in turn creates shorter lead times and lower prices. This is a business strategy, really, rather than pure design driven approach.
Volume manufacturing of sight glass components such as housing and glass is the key to keeping competitive pricing. Working for the inventory is a very different approach than working on a custom designed sight glass.
