Axis issues

[LadderingUp]

Hello all. We are experiencing some issues with our axis' being off by 30-50 degrees after edging even though there is no obvious slippage and we are using an auto blocker (Essilor Mr. Blue 2.0) to block the lens with hydrophobic film pads. I have 2 jobs with the exact same Rx, the lens is orientated the same in the frame (using the thicker parts of the lens as a reference), being blocked and cut one after the other using all the same equipment (Optronics 7E). It has a 40 degree difference in the Axis!! Typically its only been one lens in the pair, which also seems odd.

It seems like 20 jobs will all be fine, then 5-6 will all be wacky then back to normal. My feeling is the auto blocker is not reading the correct info but displaying the correct info and we move forward. I say this because I have noticed it not reading correctly and switching from auto to manual and back will make it display the correct info without ever moving or adjusting the lens in the blocker.

Does anyone have any suggestion on what to troubleshoot next? I'm all out of ideas. Thank you!!

[NAICITPO]

First, on the tracer when you are blocking the job is it reading the correct axis? It should say the power and the cyl and the axis if it is under -6.00 power. If it is reading incorrectly you should recalibrate it (probably a good idea to do this periodically throughout the year anyway). If you don't have the parts to do that, call Essilor Instruments 1-855-393-4647 and see if they can walk you through what to do next.

In the mean time you should dot up every lens in your lensometer and use the 3 dots feature on the tracer. Make sure it is dead on, when you use this feature it should tell you exactly what the power/cyl and axis are. If the final product is off after you have dotted the lens manually then you know it isn't the tracer but the edger.

[LadderingUp]

Hi thanks for the reply, I do run the auto calibration checks every morning on the blocker. We have the all of the parts, and we have never had a fail or error. I do spot all of the lenses and I use the 3-dot feature. This is where I notice that sometimes it will lock onto the 3 dots perfect but read 3-5 degrees off on axis that I just spotted perfect on the lensometer (we have 2 that I have cross referenced on), at this point I switch to the auto feature and I do not touch the lens. It will then lock onto the lens, as you know, with the 3 dots in some other angle, usually a straight vertical orientation, however, it will display the correct SPH, CYL, and Axis. Then I switch it back to the 3-dot feature, it will lock onto the 3 dots and give the correct reading now with the correct lens orientation. Is this normal or something you have seen with the Mr Blue?

We recently had an Essilor tech at our lab for our Neksia 500 edger maintenance, but he was unfamiliar with the blocker and he had no real input. So I have already tried that route. Also according to that tech, there is now only one phone service tech for all of North America in their service dept.

Thanks

[NAICITPO]

Hmm, when I dot up a lens and it is off when I put it in the tracer I assume I wasn't 100% accurate when I dotted the lens. Have you edged jobs that you manually dotted up and are they are still off axis? Are you seeing progressive and BF/TF lenses being off axis?

We had an Essilor rep come in to service our machines a couple years ago and they only had a couple techs in the country that worked on Mr. Blue and Mr. Orange. We split the cost with some other practices that also needed maintenance on their machines.

[LadderingUp]

Our lab only offers single vision, no progressives, so I have no data there. I do have more jobs than not that pass axis just fine. We process an avg of 40-50 jobs per day and see roughly a 10% axis problem and typically they all come in one consecutive batch, like 5 in a row and those are only off by an avg of 3-5 degrees. Only one extreme was off by 40 degrees which prompted this thread. Everything before and after is fine on axis, using all of the same equipment. Something I should mention is we do not have a manual lensometer, only 2 digitals and an auto blocker, so nothing is truly manual, however, this doesn't quite explain the intermittent nature of our issue.

While typing, I just had this thought, that I should record the jobs that I have to switch features on, 3-dot to auto, and see if those correspond to axis fails, or if the fails come from jobs I do not have to make any switch and get a correct reading first try. My heart of hearts feels like it's a glitch in the auto blocker.

[NAICITPO]

While typing, I just had this thought, that I should record the jobs that I have to switch features on, 3-dot to auto, and see if those correspond to axis fails, or if the fails come from jobs I do not have to make any switch and get a correct reading first try. My heart of hearts feels like it's a glitch in the auto blocker.

Good idea.

[LadderingUp]

Update here: There was no direct correlation to axis fails with the jobs I have to switch the features on as stated above. We still cant get to the bottom of it, but have bought a new lensometer to start weeding out bad equipment. I appreciate the feedback I received. Hopefully we can pinpoint and resolve.

[NAICITPO]

Sigh, wished I was more helpful. That's one of the best things about optics imo, the deductive logic used to find the problem.