Watch how your glasses are made after your sight test.
This is what happens behind the scenes once you have your prescription ready and you have picked your frames and lenses.
Things may vary depending upon your prescription, requirements and location, but the general practice is the same.
There are two types of lenses that your prescription will be, Stock lenses, or Surfaced lenses.
Stock lenses are mass produced and are available in thousands of different prescriptions and lens types. They are pre made and ready to use which makes the turn around time quicker and these types of lenses can also be held in stock by your eyewear or manufacturer. There are limitations to these stock lenses in terms of what prescriptions and labs types that are available.
This is where Surfaced lenses come in to play, these lenses are custom made, specifically to your prescription, measurements, frame type and other important factors. Varifocals, Bifocals, complex or higher prescriptions are all examples of surfaced lens. As they are custom made, they do take longer, depending where you are in the world.
The blocking and tracing process is standard procedure for all types of eyewear manufacturing, albeit changing ever so slightly depending upon what type of lenses and/or frame you are ordering.
The tracer scans the inside rim of the frame to take various measurements, it also tells the other glazing/edging machine what shape to cut the lenses.
The second element is to “block” the lens. This is the process of applying a special plastic block with an adhesive pad to help it stick to the lense. It’s this block that holds the lens in place in the chucks (where the lens is held) during the cutting/edging/glazing process. The location of the pad on the lens is crucial as it is apparent to the various elements of your prescription and personal measurements.
When the lens is ready for cutting, the information is sent over from the other machine so it knows what shape to cut the lenses to.
The edging/glazing machine will use various process and tools within the machine, depending upon what the lens type and frame are. Times will vary during this process but the process for most lenses is under 5 minutes per lens. Complex lenses such as rimless (with holes that need to be drilled) or special lens materials such as polycarbonate normally take longer.
When the lenses are cut, they are then ready to be assembled with the frame. Plastic frames (not all) may require a frame heater to make the plastic softer and easier to work with when inserting the lense. A metal frame that requires screws, simply requires and optical screwdriver for assembly.
I always use a thread lock on the screw thread as it prevents them from falling out or coming loose over time. I do not use this type of thread lock when using polycarbonate lenses as the chemicals from the thread lock can damage the lens.
Once the glasses are assembled, it’s then time to put them through quality control. Here lots of different aspect are checked, such as the prescription, measurements, order details and much more. Here is where I also inspect the lenses and coatings for quality. The glasses are only able to leave the lab once they are checked off and they have passed all checks.
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