What does Digital mean?
Conventional “older” lens blanks were made by creating software to help design the ceramic molds that held the lens design. These molds were then used to create the glass molds that would actually create the lens. The lens material is poured or injected into the glass molds, cured, cooled and removed from the molds for inspection. Like using a fancy cake pan over and over again, the molds would begin to lose some of their accuracy after a while. These conventionally manufactured lenses have their designs, both Progressives and lined mulit-focals, on the front surface of the lens blank. The actual RX power is traditionally surfaced on the back side of the lens, followed by fining and polishing the lens to the exact RX. This is the “off the rack” approach to lens design and production.The new digital process and equipment allow those same lens designers to skip the ceramic mold process and create the glass mold directly. By removing that extra molding process, the design begins to increase in accuracy.
What does Free Form mean?
Producing a free form design requires a digital generator that can create curves in 3 directions instead of 2.
Conventional design – up and down, side to side
Free Form – up and down, side to side and in and out
What is being created is not just the rx power but the lens design as well, with pin-point accuracy, all on the back surface of the lens blank. Not only is this system able to produce powers within .006D of the required Rx, the lens only needs to be polished to remove any excess material prior to coating. It’s called Direct-To-Polish. This technology allows the lab to create a custom design PAL from a single vision lens blank.They require pow measurements. Position of Wearer.
Additional: Vertex distance, pantoscopic angle and face-form.
FREE FORM IS A DESIGN PROCESS. ALL FREE FORM LENSES ARE DIGITALLY PRODUCED, BUT NOT ALL DIGITALLY PRODUCED LENSES ARE FREE FORM DESIGNS.
Single Vision Digital Lenses:
#1: Do you have 20/20 vision when you wear your glasses but still feel dissatisfied with how you see? You might benefit from high-definition digital lenses. Recent advances in lens manufacturing have made possible new high definition digital lenses that are designed to provide sharper vision……
#2: With digital lenses, the fabrication of the lenses is optimized with computer-controlled surfacing equipment that is much more precise than conventional tools.
Freeform Progressive Lenses:
#1: Why buy a 40 year old, conventional progressive design when advanced digital freeform progressives are available for almost the same price? The freeform design eliminates the peripheral distortion caused by conventional progressive designs, and gives its user a much better focal point transfer, wider intermediate, and provides a prescription that is accurate to the hundredth diopter making the lens extremely easy to adapt to , even for 1st time progressive users.
#2: Freeform lenses is what hand tailoring is to clothing. The freeform lens’s greatest benefit is that because each lens is custom-made to precise measurements, it requires virtually no adaptation process. Enjoy maximized visual acuity at all distances and wider vision fields with less peripheral distortion.
Polarized Lenses:
#1: Although tinted sunglasses may reduce brightness and improve wearer comfort, they do not remove glare like a polarized lens.
#2: Polarized lenses provide the comfort of darkened lenses, eliminate uncomfortable and often dangerous glare, and filter harmful ultraviolet light.
Anti-Reflective Coating:
AR coating can minimize lens surface reflections, reducing eyestrain, while allowing more light to reach the eye, improving clarity and vision. Decreased reflection makes them look better, and they produce less glare, which is particularly noticeable when driving at night or working in front of a computer monitor. The decreased glare means that wearers often find their eyes are less tired, particularly at the end of the day. Allowing more light to pass through the lens also increases contrast and therefore increases visual acuity.