I am thinking of getting a digital lab. Chemat offers the former DAC generator plus a SR coater for 190k . It skips the polishing steps. Uses an alloy blocker. They are offering a AR Coating 300 system for 60k more. I do 600 jobs a months in my practices. Half of that is digital. I need some feedback and help to make this decision. Does anyone knows about this? I saw it in Las Vegas EXPO show.
I wouldnt do in house AR's. There is no machine worth 60k that is going to give you a good coating. As for the generator im not sure about that model. But these machines here look interesting. Especialy the sprint model.Originally Posted by mariocarcamo
http://www.schneider-om.com/en/produ...sc-sprint.html
DON"T SKIP THE POLISH STAGE !!! They say it can be done, but I've never seen it to be totally succesful.
Contact DAC directly, they may have better ideas. http://dac-intl.com/
From what I know DAC and Chemlux are still two independent companies.
I would be concerned about delivery times with Schneider, LOH, Optotech. You should check before purchasing.
Chemat has apparently purchased the rights to the RxD system from DAC. Maybe the latter will return to their original focus on contact lens lathes.
Our lab does numbers that are greater than what you said, and it is still more cost effective to farm out the digital work, than to buy our oun equipment. Remember that the purchase price does not include consumables. I do not know what the AR system would be like, but it would more than likely not be anywhere near what an established AR lab could get you. You really need to control that process tightly, or else the breakage could be staggering. I am talking a clean room for coatings, and AR. If you don't have one of those already, don't forget to add that cost into the total investment. I also do not think the cut to edge technology is there yet, so the promise of not having to polish is not always the case.
With today's high percentages of A/R sales (the Seattle region is over 65%) you really have to think in terms of doing BOTH a digital line and A/R, or neither. Gerber has a great price on their digital line of about $280K, but an Leybold A/R room will set you back about $450K. Its really about $750K you need to make it work, not counting about $35k to turn an existing room into an clean A/R room. You need at least 400 sq feet for A/R and a digital line will need about 220 sq ft, and you may need more depending on your hard coating. Besides the initial cost A/R is half art/half science and you will eat a lot of lenses to start out. Can you survive the short term cash flow issues? Can you afford $750K? Do you have that much extra space?
DAC RxD looks cool but you are stuck with doing only CC Systems in-house progressive as other companies lenses have not been validated to work on DAC equipment. Hopefully Chemelux can improve the product and expand the validation to make it more usable. Although it was the cheapest digital system, Opto-Tech and Gerber both have less expensive lines (around $285k) than DAC and both are validated for most progressives. Schneider has great equipment but they come in at about $399 for a full line now.
Not every lab that buys freeform equipment buys A/R, especially initially - especially if they can source it easily. But as suggested, it's something to take into account when making the decision.
With the number of independant companies who provide AR services, it is very foolish (IMO) to think about putting in an AR facility yourself. I'd find out how many AR labs are within 1 days shipping time from your location and find out how much they would charge you to do your AR work. Otherwise, its just penny-wise, pound-foolish.
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