Remote tracer

**Dannyboy** · 02-11-2002, 01:24 PM

What is the good and bad of remote tracing? Anyone actually doing it all by remote tracing? Redos or innacuracies?

Dannyboy:)

**Judy Canty** · 02-11-2002, 02:47 PM

I've been using remote tracing for almost 6 years. First with VisionLink and now using the Optronics 4T system. While I'm not 100% remote, it's becoming pretty close. After all, I make my money advising, fitting and dispensing, not edging.

I have been extremely satisfied with the results. Sizes and measurements are accurate almost 100% of the time, though on occasion I may need to touch off a lens on my handstone. The biggest advantages are not having to keep the patients frame and the quick turn-around time. I realize that I could get uncuts overnight, but that doesn't mean that I will always have the time to edge them right away and I really don't want to spend my evenings standing at an edger.

**Dannyboy** · 02-11-2002, 08:10 PM

How many jobs do you think it is necessary to justify the investment.? Did your lab actually put the unit?

Dannyboy

**Rick-Strong** · 02-12-2002, 06:50 AM

We use remote tracing. It works quite well. The only problem we
have is small lenses for Px`s that are from out of town. I would
guess its 95% accurate.
We are building a small data base of Px`s and frames, I believe
in another year the benefits will be even greater.
Rick

**Judy Canty** · 02-12-2002, 10:08 AM

The tracer cost me about $6000 and the software was free. All in all, a lot cheaper than a brand-new edger. So the lab adds a charge of about $4-5 to edge a pair of lenses, I figure that $30,000 divided by $4-5 is not worth the investment. Add in breakage and the price goes up again. AND I'm not cleaning buckets or a shop-vac.

**Excel-Lentes** · 02-12-2002, 05:23 PM

Hi,

I used a remote tracing system while working in a MD's office for about 6 months. It was quite impressive. Hoya put in the tracer, computer and software free of charge. The catch was that we needed to meet a loose minimum monthly order.

The quality was unmatched but a bit pricey. Only twice the lenses were a bit large (buy a handstone). The software would calculate exact thicknesses for any lens material and graphically demonstrate this to the patient. Also, you could see the thickness at any point around the lens circumference (this really helps avoiding problems with certain Rx and frame combos).

The main downfall is that you have to manually insert the lenses into the frames. You pay full price (edge and mount) but you only get edge. Somewhat time consuming.

Talk to your local labs, they may be offering a special deal and put in a tracer at little or no cost depending on your volume.

**Bev Heishman** · 02-14-2002, 10:45 PM

We are using remote tracing with our wholesale lab using an Optronics 4T tracer and TNT. Works well 99.5% of the time only job that came in big was a Safety glass job. Ours is on TNT rebate called Hot Link.

We recently added an Optronics 6E edger and having just a few bugs for our in office edging. Although I am beginning to believe some of it is related to temperature as we have recently ventilated the lab to the outside with a second fan (and now over the edger)and we have had a little bit of a cold spell this week. I also added a surge supressor today and added burnin to warm up the motors in the AM. We may place a thermal blanket over Nellie if this issue is not eliminated!