Dye.

[dave.fant.lab]

Hey! I hope everyone is doing alright today. I have a question in regards to lens dye. Our black dye seems to be pretty consistently terrible through the company we use right now. It will be great for about a handful of jobs and then it will begin to have a purple hew to it, it seems like the dye should not deteriorate at such a fast pace. Does anyone have any recommendations for a high quality black/grey dye?

We clean out the old tub before putting new dye into it. We mix the dye according to the instructions on the bottle, exactly. We have the unit at the correct temperature. We do not cross dip any dyes. I do not wish to throw the company under the bus that we use, I am just looking to find a high quality product to better the quality of product were producing for our patient. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[uncut]

I hear ya...........a common problem with lens dye.......how to get the "red" out. You could stay anywhere there is flourescent lighting..............no red in there! LOL


Seriously, get a bottle of BPI Solar Black...........and you won't look back. IMO

[SharonB]

Incandescent lighting can make gray or brown dyes look reddish... I have always found that if I used distilled water and did not cross-contaminate the dye pots, I could keep the red out longer. After a while, I almost always had to tint the lenses in dark green, or add green to the dye pot, to get the red out whether or not they were to be gray or brown. BPI used to make a product called "Red Out" but I am not sure if they still do. Of all of the colors, blue and green are the most fugitive (and fade the fastest) and red is the most long lasting. Since gray dye contains those pigments, red will be the last to fade. Temperature is another issue - running the tanks at above 205 degrees F can break down the pigments faster, as will leaving the dye unit on all day. I found that heating the tanks up for one concentrated dyeing session, and then turning them off, kept my dyes color-true for a longer period of time.

[Chris Ryser]

Incandescent lighting can make gray or brown dyes look reddish... I have always found that if I used distilled water and did not cross-contaminate the dye pots, I could keep the red out longer. After a while, I almost always had to tint the lenses in dark green, or add green to the dye pot, to get the red out whether or not they were to be gray or brown. BPI used to make a product called "Red Out" but I am not sure if they still do. Of all of the colors, blue and green are the most fugitive (and fade the fastest) and red is the most long lasting. Since gray dye contains those pigments, red will be the last to fade. Temperature is another issue - running the tanks at above 205 degrees F can break down the pigments faster, as will leaving the dye unit on all day. I found that heating the tanks up for one concentrated dyeing session, and then turning them off, kept my dyes color-true for a longer period of time.

Very nice post.........................

I would like to add just a few more hints. As all colors are made from the basic red / blue / yellow dispersed pigments, there is a main color that is called the workhorse in the dye industry, and adjustments are made from there.

If red is your workhorse it will prevail and more so as the color fades with age. That is why many black or grey colored lenses start to look purple with age.
You can look for a dye brand that uses, for example blue as the workhorse, where the red is only for adjustments and not dominant. Such dyes will not fade into purple and have no red tinge and there is no need for "Red Out".

There are now newer, high energy dyes, available which also will last longer under heat, and work at higher temperatures. The higher the temperature the faster a lens will tint.

When tinting lenses that will be AR coated, always make them about 15% darker, as the rigourous washing cycle the lenses are subject to, will remove some of the pigments.

[dave.fant.lab]

Incandescent lighting can make gray or brown dyes look reddish... I have always found that if I used distilled water and did not cross-contaminate the dye pots, I could keep the red out longer. After a while, I almost always had to tint the lenses in dark green, or add green to the dye pot, to get the red out whether or not they were to be gray or brown. BPI used to make a product called "Red Out" but I am not sure if they still do. Of all of the colors, blue and green are the most fugitive (and fade the fastest) and red is the most long lasting. Since gray dye contains those pigments, red will be the last to fade. Temperature is another issue - running the tanks at above 205 degrees F can break down the pigments faster, as will leaving the dye unit on all day. I found that heating the tanks up for one concentrated dyeing session, and then turning them off, kept my dyes color-true for a longer period of time.

Great advice. I actually stole that idea from a thread I read here on Optiboard a few months ago and it has worked wonders for us. We were buying dyes at a very high rate to keep the quality up and this has helped a ton in terms of cost of upkeep.

[dave.fant.lab]

Very nice post.........................

I would like to add just a few more hints. As all colors are made from the basic red / blue / yellow dispersed pigments, there is a main color that is called the workhorse in the dye industry, and adjustments are made from there.

If red is your workhorse it will prevail and more so as the color fades with age. That is why many black or grey colored lenses start to look purple with age.
You can look for a dye brand that uses, for example blue as the workhorse, where the red is only for adjustments and not dominant. Such dyes will not fade into purple and have no red tinge and there is no need for "Red Out".

There are now newer, high energy dyes, available which also will last longer under heat, and work at higher temperatures. The higher the temperature the faster a lens will tint.

When tinting lenses that will be AR coated, always make them about 15% darker, as the rigourous washing cycle the lenses are subject to, will remove some of the pigments.

Do you know the names of any of these high energy dyes off hand? I know what you meant about the red being the strongest and longest lasting of the pigments. My girlfriend is the optical manager here and we did a pair of Elle Sunglasses for her about a week ago. They had a bit of a purple hew to them and we did a quick dip into yellow to try to take it out and it worked. Well now a week later, they look like a deep, dark red color. There really is no resemblance of a it being a grey 3.

I checked out some BPI products, as that was the only product mentioned. I have yet to make a purchase, but I am leaning that way, so far it seems they have good reviews.

[PRECISIONLAB]

If your tint starts out a true gray then turns to a purple then something is contaminating the tint. How old are your dye pots. I've found that although they are stainless steel, after time they develop small pin holes which allows the heat transfer fluid to "mix in" ..if your heat transfer fluid is colored than dye pots may need to be replaced.