Hi, I'm new here. My Factory Manager told me that there is some pill or chemical which can make tinting faster. But he don't know what it is.
We are asking this because we need a long time to tint 1.61 and 1.67 index lenses to dark color (80% or 90%). We need something to boost the tinting process.
Hope you guys out there can help us.
Thank you.
A fellow Optiboarder, Chris Ryser, has a chemical company that may have your answer!
http://optochemicals.com/
He has many tinting solutions. He promotes a microwaveable process that is supposed to be much faster than conventional tinting.
Thanks Fezz! We'll read the site you suggested.
No problem!
Sorry that it took me so long!;)
Welcome to Optiboard!
:cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers:
High index tints in 4-8 minutes....................
Thank you Fezz for the introduction, I not only promote, I also own the patents to the process and the chemicals.Originally Posted by Fezz
Polycarbonate and all other high index can be tinted in 4 to 8 minutes to 80% to 9o% absorption without any problem, by using special dyes and microwaves. CR39 tints in 60 seconds to dark shades.
The tinting system is fully water based and does not need any ventilation as there are no toxic fumes and bad smells, not even from the remover. So it can easily be used in an office environment.
The dues will outlast any other dye on the market and very often can last more than a year for somebody that does not tint on a regular basis.
The equipment is only a good microwave which you can get for about $ 100.00 and you are ready to go and tint your high index lenses in just minutes instead of hours.
Go on my website at http://optochemicals, enter my home page and scroll down to MicroTints and you will find all the links for full explanations of every aspect relating to this issue. We also have a Starter Kit Special which you can find at http://optochemicals.com/micro_starterkit.htm
Last edited by Chris Ryser; 12-04-2008 at 05:01 AM.
You should make some test of the coatings after tinting 1.60 and higher index products (as well as poly). These lens materials do not tint. Only the coating tints. The coating is very thin. Tinting compromises the coating. Darker tints greatly damage the coating. The best solution for this problem is to use polarized lenses. With polarized lenses, you will get a much better product.
That is nothing new. Same goes for Trivex, only the coating tints permanently. The better a hard coat tints, the softer the hard coat. If you have one that tints very good and fast the conventional way in the dye pot it will scratch easily.
However microwave exposure will dye harder coatings that are tintable.
Depending on the lens manufacturer and the coating material they are using most lenses will perfectly survive microwave tinting.
You would do your product a service if you'd have some independent test made. It could be a good selling point for your product. Does COLTS test such things?
Thank you for all of you who suggested the solution.
To Chris Ryser (OMS), your reseller/agent did come to our lab but he didn't promote your micro-wave solution.
According to my Lab manager, he knew micro-wave technique but he said micro-wave only suitable for the retail shop. We as a lens distributor and lab not suitable to use this technique. (But he didn't mention why).
He said that when he attending the optical fair in Hong Kong in October, somebody introduced to him a chemical/booster which made the lens (may be) softer and easier to tint. But he had forgotten what it call. The guy introducing him didn't tell him the chemical is in liquid or pill form. So he just ask me to check.
Just for your info, we do tinting, then UV, hard coat (Using dipcoat)and last MC(or AR).
Specially thanks to Gemstone for your advice.
Last edited by fatoldman; 12-05-2008 at 01:36 AM.
MicroTints...............
gemstone
The US Navy tested the product for a full 7 month, 5 years ago and decided to go for it. I doTested by military.................I dont think I need any other testing than having been accepted by the US military and thousands of other professionals around the world. Used by the military means means it has been fully tested by them and has a military standard. I dont think I can get any better reference than that.
The product is good and working right unless the operator develops his own ways and techniques and screws up. That would be out of my hands.
Furthermore we have our own R&D and testing facilities and are continuously coming up with new products to facilitate protection of lenses and help opticians to apply them in their own backyard without having to go to the lab.
Large capacity is possible..........................
Anything that is done in small, can be done on a large scale. There are industrial microwave installations available where you can actually tint in buckets containing 3 to 4 hundred lenses in the same speed as 1 or 2 lenses in a small microwave. Microwave installations with conveyor belts can do up to 100,000 lenses a day. Industrial Microwave are made in every size range and that is your only limit.
Also if as a lab you just do the high index in a small microwave, 8 minutes of tinting time let's you do 7 pairs an hour versus 1 pair for 4 hours in a dye pot. So you could actually do 28 pairs one by one in the same time by just using a small microwave.
2) Hard coats that are softer do tint better. The softer the better tinting......................also scratching very fast, only 50% protection versus a real hard non tintable hard coat.
That's great. Do you publish results? I would be very interested in the Scratching presure and adheasion test before and after tinting to sunglass on high index and polycarbonate.
Chris,
Do you have any quick tint solutions for doing gradient tints. We seem to have a high percentage of pats. who like 80% fade to clear at the bottom of the lense.
Thanks!
Is it practical to have a soft coating, tint it then a really hard coating added as an overlayer?
Chip
quick tint solutions for doing gradient tints..............
Our tinting system tints a lens up to a hundred times faster than the conventional way, and there is no time to make a gradient during the tinting process.
However we found a way of doing it, which we call a negative gradient. You tint the lens full color, and then remove the color you want to lighten up with your gradient dipper.
Is it practical to have a soft coating...............
Actually you can not put another layer of hard coat on top of a cured hard coat. There will be no good adhesion.
But there is a way of using the hardest available UV curable hard coat, (non Tintable) and tint it to any shade you want.
You apply the hard coat,............then semi cure it.................in a semi cured condition the material is still soft and tintable. So you tint it and then after cure it to full hardness.
This system was used in the largest lab in Texas for years, it has become an Essilor lab and I have no information if they have continued the practice.
I am familiar with a few chemical additives that will accelerate the process of tinting plastic lens. The amount of acceleration depends on the type of plastic lens, other coatings and temperature. I assume you are using a bath process. Most bath processes work best around 205 F. The additives are not particularly expensive or difficult to use.
Contact me off line for additional information.
I am familiar with a few...................
BPI and all other conventional dye suppliers offer such a thing. However it never replaces the speed microwaves can provide for super fast tinting.
Dark shades in:
60 seconds for CR39,
4 to 8 minutes for poly and high index
:cheers:
"Better things through chemistry" is a famous phrase. In a factory setting, using a bath process for tinting can be easily accelerated by the addition of a proper formulation. It affects the nature of the lens surface without disturbing the characteristics of the optical properties that the optical industry desires.
I am sure, Mr. Ryser has a fine product line suited to use on a countertop. But, in a factory setting, countertop microwaves do not suit themselves to higher production quantities.
Correction............................
[FONT=Arial
LKahn..........as you are making a very un-informed statement you need to be corrected.
A small 750 to 1000 watt microwave oven is inexpensive and good enough for an in office applicationapplication, however with above pictured baby you can actually tint over 100,000 pairs a day on conveyor belts in a big factory setting.
Microwave use has just about un-limited possibilities for a wide range of aplications in hundreds of different fields. It has unlimited possibilities to apply heat to products that need it and will do it at tremendously increased speed.
So whichever way you want to go there is a high tech solution to do it in a small or large environment, it is only a matter of cost and investment.
This is a long way gone from the old restaurant food warmer with a thermostat using a heat transfer media and toxic chemicals, that has been used for lens tinting for the last 35 years.
Mr Ryser,
You missed the point of the thread. The point of the question was, "Is there a chemical additive that will accelerate the tinting process?" The answer is yes.
I'm sure your microwave works just as good as you claim. That was not the question.
You can speed it up a lot with a couple drops of detergent. Probably not sophisticated enough for you, like castor oil for dry eyes. But it works, like castor oil for dry eyes.
We need something to boost the tinting process.
There is the question................................
Mr Ryser,
You missed the point of the thread. The point of the question was, "Is there a chemical additive that will accelerate the tinting process?" The answer is yes.
I'm sure your microwave works just as good as you claim. That was not the question.
........................and there is the answer :D :hammer:
Your microwave production line is impressive.
How much does it cost for a microwave production line as in your picture?
Price..............
Sorry, we are not allowed to quote prices on this forum. Go to my website and check it out. :finger:
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