Glasses - edge polishing

Horizon81

It seems I must have struck lucky in the past when I'd got the lenses polished and they caused no glare problems or rainbow effects. Think I'll just have to go back to the standard frosted style finish, which looks cosmetically less appealing but is better to look through for the wearer, i.e. me!

GlasweJen

Chains like optical/ vision express who glaze in store start with a blank and do their own edging, so can determine how polished your finished product would be. A 1.74 lens would be ordered from the supplier as they're less likely to be used and uncut lenses take up space.

If you want an expert and not a salesman I'd look for a well stocked independents and make an appointment to go in and look at frames. Take your prescription and talk about the problems you've had. I work in an independent practice and I love being able to spend time with my customers which is something id never be able to do in my last practice.

GlasweJen

Just spotted you bought "pentax" lenses from specsavers. All of specsavers lenses are pentax, because they bought the name off of the supplier. The perception that pentax is a superior lens comes from the good old days when pentax lenses were all made by pentax.

Some of specsavers "pentax" lenses are glazed with the same lenses and in the same labs as lenses from asda and boots.

GlasweJen

You can leave polycarbonate unpolished at the edges if the patient requests it. Edging polycarbonate is a pain, I leave it unpolished sometimes if it's going into an acetate and no one will see it anyway.

GlasweJen

Our nidek refuses to glaze without water so water on for cutting then hand edger for most things. Our lab doesn't do rimless though as we don't have drills so we have another company do them.

The glasses I make are usually tinted for MI syndrome unless I'm helping the tech so I cut more CR39 than anything else. Our tech always edges polycarbs but as I never recommend supra for kids with Learning difficulties (which most MI kids usually have) I never have to worry about cracks at the supra cord.

GlasweJen

We're independent so budget isn't big enough for a new machine. Just got new diamond wheels before I went off sick though, performance on them is awesome now.

Ali_Mohamed

The reason for the reflections is due to Chromatic Abberations. Light is made up of several different colours (rainbow colours) and when it enters in different angles (especially around the edges of the lens) its broken up into its rainbow colours and all different colours have different speed in which they travel hence the reflections.

This is more common in higher prescriptions, poor quality of lenses, High Index lenses (Thinner lenses 1.6, 1.67, 1.74)

To stop/ reduce reflections:
- Have an Anti-Glare coating (normally extra £).
-If you have high prescriptions avoid rimless designs as they polish the edges for cosmetic reasons. If not bothered about appearance then leave them just smooth edged to control the amount of light.
-The Abbe Value or sometimes called V-value in Thinner lenses depending on manufacturers are normally low. Therefore choose ur lens suppliers carefully. Recommended are Essilor, BBGR or Zeiss.
-Get plastic frames. The have darker and thicker rims, therefore light is limited.

In some cases you just cant stop reflections!

I cant think of anymore at the moment. If I do remember anymore points I will post back.

I am a Qualified Dispensing Optician with 8 years experience in the optical field.

I hope this reply is hopeful.