The Powell Prism resembles a circular prism with a curved roofline. The lens is a laser line generator that stretches a narrow laser beam into a uniformly illuminated line.

Powell prisms are quantum leap line generators that outperform simple cylindrical lenses. . Powell lenses’ rounded roofs are complex two-dimensional aspheric curves that actually produce a large amount of spherical aberration that redistributes light along the line; reducing light in the central region while raising light level at the ends of the line. The result is a very uniform illumination line used in all manner of machine vision applications; from biomedical and automotive assembly to chocolate chip cookie production.