Sunglasses : Designer Sunglasses: How Sunglasses Are Made

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How Sunglasses Are Made

Sunglasses are voguish fashion add-ons that make you look and feel cool, but have you ever questioned how those cool shades are made? Shades come in a lot of styles, shapes, colors and brands. There are polarized, prescription, clip-on, flexible, men’s, women’s, unisex, kids, designer, and custom-made sunglasses. There are police force, pilot and rescue shades, biker, skier and other sports dark glasses. There are even sunglasses with built-in audio digital players. How are all these different sunglasses made?

Sunglasses have assorted types of lenses. Glass lenses have better optic quality and are more scratch-resistant than plastic ones. Photo chromic lenses darken in reaction to light. Glass photo chromic lenses are more effective in the reduction of UV rays. Gradient Lenses are darker on top and bit by bit become lighter toward the bottom.
Materials used for tinting polarized lenses are in general brown or gray. Any coloration can be used for high index, Trivex, and polycarbonate.

Different color lenses give different levels of protective cover from the UV rays of the sun. E.g., amber and brown do a better job of assimilating the UV light. Treatment of clear lenses with anti-reflective applications will protect the eyes from UV radiation. The best level of protective covering from UV rays is 100 per cent. The anti-reflective covering has an additional benefit of helping to protect the lenses from some surface abrasions.

Before tinting, lenses need to properly fit in the selected previously constructed frame; consequently, the lens needs to be ground to fit the frame’s size and shape. Likewise, the lens has to be ground according to the prescription called for to solve refractive errors in the client’s vision. Myopic vision is one good example of an eye problem that would command a prescription for shades. Other sunglasses prescriptions could be for bifocals, progressive bifocals and trifocals which would call for a larger size lens to accommodate the lens progression.

The grinder that’s used to grind the lenses to the specs of the prescription is called an edger. There’s a constant quantity source of water running over the lens while it’s being ground in order to lower the heat caused by friction on the glass. The friction heat can cause glass to crack or break. H2O also makes the grinding easier and smoother on the edge and prevents scratching up of the surface from dry glass grit.

When the grinding is completed and the lenses are cleaned, tint is added to the lens by dunking the lens in a tint solution which is absorbed into the lens. The longer it’s dipped, the darker the tint. The lenses are exhaustively rinsed and dried out then are fit into the sunglasses frame and the frame is fastened tightly around the lens by tightening the screws on the frame. Sunglasses frames are mass-produced from products like plastic, nylon, carbon fiber and metal.

The process of making sunglasses has come a long way from when Roman Emperor Nero held polished light emerald glass gemstones up to his eyeballs and Chinese attached ceramic weights to the ends of ribbons draped over the ears in order to keep on their cool shades.