Mel Decker went to work for Harold Newman at Sage Instruments in 1960. Sage was then doing custom medical instrumentation. In 1967, Sage was sold to a larger organization whose interests were not in the optical area. Mel began to form the idea of going independent. The people who sell research microscopes are an impressive group and the opportunity to work with them was appealing.

Finally, in 1970, with Harold's encouragement Opti Quip was born. The purpose, then and since, has been to offer accessories to improve the performance of the research microscope.

Opti Quip's first product, the Model 220, was an advanced unit to take time-lapse and high-speed movies through either an inverted or upright microscope. To be used with this unit was the Model 335 infrared incubator, making use of a focused beam of infrared heat, controlled by a miniature temperature probe.

In 1972 Opti-Quip offered its first power supplies for a variety of mercury and xenon lamps. These power supplies required a large variety of sockets to fit the various lamphouse/lamp combinations. Improvements were continuous, but the large variety remained a problem.

In 1984 a second generation of power supplies was launched. The Model 1500 could handle the requirements of five different arc lamps. The 1500 showed the superiority of a new 150 watt xenon lamp from Osram, more intense, more stable, ozone free, and with a 2000 hour life expectancy.

At this same time, most major microscope manufacturers decided to discontinue their large lamphouses, which this 150 watt lamp required. Opti Quip therefore decided to design and produce a lamphouse that would run cool, fit every make of microscope, and have a universal lamp mounting system that would not require a separate special socket for each and every lamp. The result was the Model 770. Now with the help of two lamp length adaptors and six separate trigger wires, a variety of lamps can be used and switched without the need for separate and expensive sockets.

Lamphouses need good optics to transmit as much light as possible from the lamp being used. Opti Quip has developed three different types of optics for our lamphouses; one for general use, a quartz, and a special type for multiple band pass fluorescence.

A third generation of power supplies was introduced in 1992. The Model 1600 utilizes the latest electronic technology in a high speed (30 KHz) switching power supply. Ripple in output current, which equates to ripple in light output, has been reduced to less than one tenth of one percent. Stability has been greatly increased with the added ability to maintain long-term light output by means of light output feedback. Pulse power capability allows the momentary increase of light up to a twenty times normal illumination. A companion to the 1600 is the OQ Model 1700 power supply. This model runs the XBO 250 watt arc lamp with the same kind of ripple and stability. Each of these supplies weighs only 8 ½ pounds. The Model 1600 draws a mere 3 amps from a 110-volt circuit.

Currently, advancements in techniques for using fluorescence in genetics research have created a need to switch easily among a variety of fluorescent cubes and to do bright field work at the same time. This need has led Opti Quip into developing these switching mechanisms and the epi-illuminators that are used with them.