Tinting ! NOTHING TINTS ANYMORE! Nothing! WTF?
Ok, am I crazy or does nothing tint well anymore. I have tried everything and can't get a good tint on anything it seems. Not even TruTint plastic is working as well as I seem to remember. I send jobs complete to the lab and they come back a good 20% lighter than the sun demo. What am I supposed to do? And this is with plastic. Forget any other higher index. What the hell is going on here ?
:angry:
what type of tint system do you have? What type of maintenance do you do to that system. Also, the lab should be able to do a better job. May need to look at another lab for your tints
I've noticed a few problems with tinting from a cetrain company recently. If i order pre-tinted lenses and then cut them, i can see light silouhettes of the chuck on them afterwards and also the three dots where i have marked the OC and axis points. Like permananent stainmarks whick won't come off. Bit annoying. almost like the lenses have become too porous. Maybe they're heating them up too much who knows.....
The scratch coatings they use now are harder to scratch and they're also harder to tint, in some cases, tint-proof.
Maybe they can vacuum-coat them like they did with glass.
DragonlensmanWV N.A.O.L.
"There is nothing patriotic about hating your government or pretending you can hate your government but love your country."
Send them back. And if they come wrong again, send them back again. Do this until your lab gets the message...or until you switch labs.Originally Posted by skirk1975
Honestly, I don't understand how tinting anything other than a very light tint is even profitable anymore. The time it can take to match shades/colors/etc can burn up a twenty dollar bill real fast. I have my lab do them but I don't accept poor results just because I'm too lazy to tint them myself. If YOU pay someone to do them, they do them 'til they're right, just like your patient will demand of you if they're wrong.
-Tony
We do 100% non glare on top of the tints so we really cause problems. Tinting a light color and then adding non glare is a recipe for disaster. Pech Optical is about to receive a new thermal coater that is supposed to be designed specifically for tinting lenses. The coating goes 50% deeper into the lens and should not bleach out in the cleaning process as easy as it currently does when cleaned.
The machine is due in the next few weeks and then needs to get up and running.
I am also working on a new idea with Pech to allow us to offer tints on a very consistent basis. I am going to first only attempt this on trivex and not worry about the rest of the materials yet. By isolating a material we have a much better chance of success as opposed to trying to coat every lens that exists and wondering why we cannot achieve any consistency.
This new idea was born out of another project we are working on and should yield some new ways to tint lenses.
I will keep you posted.
Craig
Send the tint sample to be matched in with the job. Don't do no poly. Or if you do poly you may have to shop for a lab than can do it well.
Chip
Here's a hint: Add a couple of drops of detergent to the tinting solution.
Last edited by chip anderson; 05-18-2009 at 07:29 PM. Reason: Hint
prepare for a microwave oven tint plug soon!;)
Not yet!?
MicroTint can do the job...................
...........that is why you can tint with the MicroTint system and get guaranteed good and fast results every time and anytime.
Will tint hard to dye lenses to the darkest possible shades in 4 to 8 minutes as simple as that.
Check it out at http://optochemicals.com and scroll down the main page to all the MicroTint links.
I just KNEW it was a question of time before Chris saw this post! We'll just call it a birthday present from a member.....and move on!!! :D
PS, this is one of those rare opportunities when members are allowed to plug their businesses. It is in direct response to a members question.
Last edited by hcjilson; 05-19-2009 at 07:51 AM. Reason: PS
"Always laugh when you can. It is a cheap medicine"
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Speaking of plugging :p You tried plugging in the tint unit? :hammer:
You can order what I call "tintable poly". I assume it's without a hard coat on top, it will tint but not super dark. If someone wants a dip tint instead of a polorized lens I try to use CR39 uncoated. If it's a tint I'm not sure I can do well I send the demo to the lab and have them tint the lens to match. They do a good job and if it's not to my liking they will do it again.
Coco, Poly itself does not tint, it's the coating that absorbs the tint.
Tintable poly has a coat it's just not cured as long so it's a little more porous then regular poly.
How about service....................?
Thank you Harry.................I would even plug it if it would not be my own baby.
Knowing that I can tint Poly and high index lenses to the darkest shades in just minutes, compared to the conventional way where it can take hours just to get to about 40% absorbtion.
This one is not a plug....................
In a recession when business is slow one should be doing as much as possible by yourself. Specially tinting whatever way you do it is a way to save a lot of money.
How much time will it take to send lenses back to lab again and again, while you could could do it while customer waits.
I just did a pair of lenses...........remove lenjses from frame, removed AR coating and tinted lenses dark brown, remounted lenses into frame, total time taken 8 minutes. It can actually be done while patient waits, and would that not be a fantastic service ?
And you're not using polar lenses why?? You'll have the most consistency, and you don't ever have to worry about needing to dispense ANY sun lens without AR!
And polar lenses are available in almost every material, lens design, base curve and color you could ever need.
Add to that the better optical properties of a polar filter and for most patients it often makes the most sense.
This was in VM in April. I've actually seen the lenses and it does what it advertises.
Ask your lab to cure your lenses for half the time, you'll have a #3 80% in 1 minute.
Ah ha! I learn something every day. Thank you.
Here is an idea. I don't know if it's a good idea, but it is an idea.
Step 1. increase the price of tinting by 30%. I think that is valid response to the questions posted. The new coatings require more time, more stress, new equipment, fresher tints, etc. to get them right.
Step 2. Review and shop hard for good polarized lens prices. I have noticed that the price has come down over the past couple of years. If you haven't shopped around, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Step 3. Decrease your polarized lens pricing by 20% and present if first. If it's so hard to tint, then don't sell it. With the revised pricing you can point out that the "polarized lens is only $X more".
It's not a great situation to tint lenses. The "tintable" lenses don't have as effective hard coat. You may have some less satisfied patients down the road. We all know that polarized lenses are LOVED by almost everyone that gets them!
curing and tinting hard coat.....................
Very nice but not quite correct...................it has to be a UV curable coating, then it has to be applied and half cured................then you tint, which is easy,...............but following that you have to finish the curing of the hard coat.
That has been done since 1985.
Despite having been told to shut up on this plastics, I suspect all absorb moisture to some extent. Most metals, including steel, brass, aluminum, etc. do also. Pre-heating might remove enough of this to prevent streaking.
Chip
I dont know Chris, it works fine for me but what do I know? I was 10 years old in 1985.
You might however want to tell Ultra-optics to add a cycle 3 on thier curing machine for people who cure using cycle 2 which is about 70% of the time of cycle 1 so they can do the other 30% after tinting.
I had someone in this week that didn't want polarized lenses. She didn't like how the windows in her car look like through polarized lenses. We went with regular plastic.
Pilots don't like polarized lenses to fly.
Done for a long time....................
brahem..............they actually did some smart things in the optical trade even before 1975...............................
Ultra Optics is a fully automatic machine, and iit is not up to me to change their system.
However the largest lab in Dallas taken over by Essilor a few years back has had their own coating and curing system for Polycarbonate lenses for years and had been tinting their lenses forever that way.
Hard coating started in the early 80s and everything was manual, so you could do whatever you wanted or needed, ever front surfaces.
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