Barr Associates was founded in 1971 by Edgar Barr. Barr was a pioneer in thin film filters, having started in the industry in the 1940s and setting up a thin films lab at Polaroid. Barr Associates is a world leader in designing and manufacturing precision thin film coatings and filters. Based in Westford, Mass., Barr has a variety of coating technologies and manufacturing capabilities that are deployed to service a diverse array of markets and applications that include biotechnology, medical, laser-based, color, astronomy, instrumentation, defense, aerospace, safety, security, scientific, space, imaging, telecom and machine vision.