How Eyeglasses Are Made

When you consider just how complex creating a pair of prescription eyeglasses is, it is amazing that we are able to get our eyes checked, place an order for a particular prescription, pick a frame and then get our glasses back, ready to wear, in a matter of days. Throughout most of the world, there are eyeglasses laboratories that do nothing but churn out people’s eye glass orders. Sometimes, they do make mistakes and your glasses will need to be made again, but for the most part, the system that is currently in place is efficient and works extremely well to provide people with the eye care they need in an incredibly quick fashion. Let’s take a closer look at all of the various steps your order goes through before you receive them.

Creating glasses from scratch involves a technical and detailed process. If your prescription is a bit less complex, the entire process can skip over some of the steps mentioned below, but on average, your eyewear order, once it leaves the store, will go through the following series of steps before they are shipped back to you to wear.

1. First, the laboratory will choose the right material that your lenses are to be made from. You can still find stores that will sell you glass lenses, but the overwhelming majority of them use different grades of plastic. The more durable the plastic is, the most expensive your eyeglasses will be. The material comes in blocks that your lens is then shaped out of. Many people would be surprised to learn just how large of an original piece their lenses started out as when you consider how tiny the actual piece of plastic in your eyeglasses actually is.

2. Your lenses are then properly prepared to be put inside a machine that shapes them known as a generator. The original piece of lens must be loaded into the generator very carefully and with exacting specifications so that it can be shaped properly. Incorrect loading can lead to a ruined set of lenses, and the raw materials here cost quite a bit.

3. Once loaded inside the generator, the lens shape is chosen by the lab technician. The generator has a template program that every pair of glasses starts as, and then the specific shape of your lens is crafted from there. This is a very delicate part of the whole procedure. One false move and the lens is ground the wrong way or into the wrong shape and the entire process will have to be started over.

4. At this point, the generator machine is allowed to do its job and much of the original material that made up your lens is ground away. This process doesn’t take very long thanks to the speed and precision of this machine. The grinding of the lenses is a fine process done with some of the most precise and expensive grinding wheels you can buy. It goes without saying that this machine is one of the most expensive used in the process to create your new pair of eyeglasses.

5. While technicians wear lab coats and masks, this next part of the process requires proper eye protection, too. The lenses are taken from the generator and put inside another machine that polishes them to a perfect shine. This machine is quite messy and is known to spit water over anyone that gets too close to it. This machine is unlike any other cleaner you have ever seen before, and it can take a filthy lens and make it blemish free in no time flat.

6. The final modifications are then done to the lenses. In industry jargon, they are marked up, which means that they are fit into the frame. If there is a small difference between the frame and the lens, a tiny amount of the lens can be removed so that the fit is perfect. This step also includes the point where the lenses are checked to make sure the prescription is correct.

7. If you ordered any type of coating on your lenses, this is the time in which those coatings will be added. The most common coatings include anti-reflective coating and tinting. If you ordered more than one type of coating, there may be a wait period between when one layer can be added and when the next one can. Even with several layers, however, you should not experience a significant delay in the time it takes to get your eyeglasses back from the lab.

8. For the second time, your eyeglasses will be checked against your prescription. Only after this final check will the glasses leave the lab and be ready for you to wear.

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