airlocks

**harry a saake** · 11-15-2001, 07:01 PM

Company is going to buy marchon airlock frames, need some opinions about these pro and con.

**Ari** · 11-15-2001, 07:46 PM

My company likes them so far. Our fear was the returning customer complaining about lenses coming apart. So far not one, we had them now for three months. The secret is to make sure to change the plastic gasket when putting back together. Also no matter what, use material polycarbonate only.

Marchon will supply you with a template gadget to help you apply the holes in the proper place. Most of all the product will sell it self.

**Specs** · 11-15-2001, 08:09 PM

I just tried one on today. Construction seemed fine but...The lens is mounted to the lens with with two drill holes on each side of the lens. One hole is for a stabilizing pin attaches to the bridge and temple piece, the other hole is for the post that holds the lens to the temple or bridge piece and has a very secure plastic bushing that locks the lens to the temple and bridge pieces. That stabilizing pin is extremely noticeable to the wearer. Its rather thick. I found it to be extremely annoying. I would think that you can eventually tune them out. I certainly wouldn't want to deal with that as a consumer or as an Optician. The owner of these glasses hated that fact about them. Enough that he went back to the place of purchase to ask if anything can be done to replace them. All that would be done is a different pair could be sold to him with a 20% discount. He declined. We're now making him a different pair. We carry the Safilo Titanium 181 three piece mounts. They come in a few shapes. First, they have a screwless hinge so you can fold them without having to carry a special case. The lenses are mounted with clear plastic bushings on the backside of the lens. They are barely noticed except when searched for. We've been happy with them and haven't had a complaint.

**sparky** · 11-15-2001, 10:17 PM

I love those frames!! Our Marchon rep was in last month to give the demonstration on drilling and mounting. I've sold a bunch since then and have yet to see any come back yet. In my opinion they are the easiest of the 3 piece to deal with. The joke of the office about those frames is the repair kit comes with its own push pin! Wonder how much extra you pay for that piece of hi-tech machinery??

**Texas Ranger** · 11-16-2001, 12:21 PM

harry, we've sold the silhouette titan mounting for about 3 years now, am looking into have the airlocks too, they have a couple extra colors. i went to www.marchon.com ; they have a mounting intruction sheet that says you have to use 2 different sizes of supplied drill bits; but I would imagine they will be a good selling product. We do a lot of custom shapes on the titans. people really lie the minimal look...why the 'poly only' statement?

**Pete Hanlin** · 11-17-2001, 11:35 AM

We've had Silhouette Titans for over a year, and I've drilled/assembled at least 40 or 50 pair. Once I figured out that the drill bit needs replacing every four or five pairs, nothing could be simpler than the Titan! Currently, I can drill and assemble a pair in about 7 minutes or so.

Therefore, when our Marchon rep showed up the AirLocks, I thought Sure, why not? They are less expensive and can't be any harder to assemble than the Titans! I couldn't have been more mistaken! In my experience, the AirLock is one of the worst products I've ever seen! I don't know whose idea it was to require two different drill bits to drill the hole and notch, but they should be drawn and quartered!

Someone mentioned earlier that the hole that receives the gasket is rather large... I wholeheartedly agree! For some reason, either the size or nature of this hole causes pretty much any lens material other than poly to crack in two! I've made about 15 AirLocks and only the poly jobs get through without a lens breakage. Even once the jobs DO make it out of the lab, they tend to come back apart down the road (even though we do use the new gaskets supplied with the frame).

My advice? If you haven't ordered these awful frames, don't! If you can, order the Titan. I have no interest in promoting Silhouette, but in the plethora of "new" drill mount designs I've seen in the past two years, none of them match up to the ease and simplicity of the Titan!