Category Archives: Products/Services/Events
Have a Fang-Tastic Night!
Enjoy Your Holiday!
How Does nanoCLEAR AR Perform in Ocean Climates?
We are often asked how nanoCLEAR™ AR performs in humid beach city climates as compared to vacuum AR. Well, nanoCLEAR AR and vaccum AR vacuum AR (whether it’s Crizal™ or some other brand) have very different failure modes. In the better vacuum AR stacks, craze is the root cause of most failures and patient returns. With the nanoCLEAR AR lens, its essentially impossible to induce craze. As a result, our AR is damaged far less in boiling water and salt water tests than vacuum lenses
With vacuum AR on a plastic lens, the thermal expansion rates are vastly different between the AR and the lens. Since the AR layers are also brittle, they tend to fracture under the stress created when the lens heats up and expands. Once that happens, contaminants work their way into the stack more easily and can cause delamination. Even if delamination is avoided, craze typically causes haze, so once it’s severe enough that will lead to a returned lens as well.
Since our nanoCLEAR AR uses plastic binders and nanoparticles, the thermal expansion rates of the AR and lens can be matched, which eliminates craze failures. That’s not to say we never have failures, all AR can be damaged by patients, however, nanoCLEAR AR performs well in hot, humid coastal regions. Just ask our customers in Miami, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean!
Celebrate Our Independence!
“Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought fourth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Abraham Lincoln”
Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.” Louis. D Brandeis
“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” Benjamin Franklin
Are You Dispensing blueVIEW?
Optical Dynamics newest lens material is blueVIEW defense, sunglasses for your indoor world.
Optical Dynamics’ indoor lens with advanced spectral filtration protects against visual discomfort and possible damage from exposure to HEV and blue spectrum light waves. Infused with an array of organic pigments, blueVIEW defense helps block and absorb a varying level of violet and blue light across a 400-500nm spectrum. 
This design provides 100% attenuation in the UV spectrum and gradually allows more light to pass as the waves lengthen for balanced protection. blueVIEW defense filters all types of blue light encountered in everyday indoor activities, while enhancing visual acuity, reducing eye strain, and retaining natural color perception.
Once you experience the comfort of blueVIEW defense you’ll never want to be inside without them again.
Call today about blueVIEW defense monomer for your Q-2100 Digital Lens System 800-797-2743 today!
The AR Process
Traditional AR coating is applied by a method know as vacuum AR. This process typically requires a very large capital expenditure, clean room, highly skilled production staff and takes from 4 to 10 plus hours to complete. This process begins with the lens moving through a multi step cleaning bath to ensure proper adhesion of the AR layers. Once cleaned, each lens is inserted into a spring retainer and married up with other lenses for a specific coating process. The lens retainers are moved to a degassing oven for surface optimization. From here, lenses are placed into a metal collate and set inside the vacuum AR coater. According to a recent article in Vision Care Product News, “a pump then removes the atmosphere and recreates a vacuum, where an ion-assisted gun helps cleanse the lenses even further prepping them for the treatment layers to be applied. The collate starts to rotate and an electronic beam gun focuses onto a crucible holding a series of different compounds. As the beam reaches its peak, a shutter plate swings to the side allowing the evaporated material to be dispersed and reach the lenses.” Most of these AR treatments involved oxide metals for the low index layers and materials such as tantalum and titanium for the high index layers. After the layers are processed, a final step is completed for the hydrophobic and oleophoic finish. The lenses are then shipped to the corresponding optical location and dispensed to patients. From order to delivery, the typical optical location must wait 3 to 7 business days before they can notify their patient of their eyeglass arrival.
Due to the cost and technical aspects involved with traditional AR coating, the majority of independent optical professional do not have the production volume necessary for profitability. In response, Optical Dynamics’ Research and Development team created the revolutionary nanoCLEAR AR system. This small table top unit works in conjunction with the Q-2100 Digital Lens system and employs a nanocomposite AR coating. Since this system processes films at atmospheric temperatures and pressures, the required hardware is greatly simplified reducing overall cost, training and production time
The nanoCLEAR AR process begins with the operator setting the four digital free form molds into the AR unit. The nanoCLEAR AR system pressure washes the molds for optimal cleanliness. The use of spin coat technology is then employed with the system laying down a scratch coat followed by the nanocomposite AR coating in mold. The digital molds are removed from the AR unit and a mold cavity is formed. The cavity is filled with either the clear or photochromic UV-curable monomer doped with nanoparticles. This allows us to engineer the refractive index and strength of the nanoAR films while maintaining the flexibility inherent to most polymers. Once the mold cavities are filled, they are cured in the main and post chambers. During the curing process the nanoCLEAR AR bonds with the lens material to produce an AR lens. The process is completed with a hydrophobic and oleophic top coat. In under 90-minutes, you have a pair of nanoCLEAR AR lenses to dispense to your patients.
Digital Lens Technology, a Greener Alternative to Traditional Lens Surfacing
The Q-2100 Digital Lens System is a green alternative as compared to traditional lens surfacing. With the Q-2100 lenses are produced direct from the bottle of liquid lens material to the finished Rx. No longer must one inventory hundreds of lens blanks to be processed to the finished prescription. A single bottle of lens material is all the operator needs to make any Rx within a broad range. Whether you need a plus lens, a minus lens, a progressive or a flattop you produce what you need in the quantity you need it.
More importantly, the digital casting process eliminates the large amount of waste typically associated with traditional lens surfacing. Lenses are not made into thick semi-finished “hockey pucks” to be ground and polish to the finished Rx. This eliminates all the polishing slurry and lens material waste that needs to be filtered, cleaned, and properly disposed as part of the existing lens manufacturing process. When optical practices process lenses in house, the traditional transportation by-products in the channel of distribution are also reduced.
“Optical Dynamics digital lens fabrication system is a greener alternative to traditional lens manufacturing,” states Michael Yager, VP of Sales. “Our system is environmentally friendly, has a very low carbon footprint, low power consumption and can be safely operated in an eyecare professional’s environment. At Optical Dynamics we continue to search for the best alternatives for all our new product designs,” added Yager.
The Q-2100 Digital Lens System occupies little space, is clean, quite and self diagnostic. With the additional benefit of producing free form quality lenses the system is an ideal choice for the progressive optical practice.
A Day to Remember Those Who Fell for Us
Happy Derby Day!
