So we recently brought Gucci frames, and many are optyl. I'm not sure that I've adjusted optyl before, and if I had, I wasn't aware. Can I get some tips on how to properly adjust these frames?
Thank you all in advance.
So we recently brought Gucci frames, and many are optyl. I'm not sure that I've adjusted optyl before, and if I had, I wasn't aware. Can I get some tips on how to properly adjust these frames?
Thank you all in advance.
ALWAYS heat them before adjusting!
Scroll down to the Memory Plastics section!
http://www.seikoeyewear.com/ce/CECourse.cfm?ceID=20
Page 12 of this great reference!
http://www.nao.org/cec/Online%20CECs...rial%20pdf.pdf
When Optyl is hot, it will flex like a peice of rubber. If it's not doing that you don't have it hot enough. When you do a temple bend you will have to hold it in place or it will go back to the original shape
I love Optyl! It is the only plastic that generally looks like new for years. It HAS to be heated enough and you will know when it is very bendable, you never want to force it. I like hot air warmers better for Optyl (never have to worry about bead marks). When you get it adjusted you have to hold it in position until it COMPLETELY cools. Adjust 1 area at a time. Hopefully you will learn to love it.
For the patients I always dispense with a disclaimer that this in not the pair to leave in the car, ever.
Story of Optyl in North America..............................
pbs........................that is a good answer. We used to hold it under cold water which was the fastest way to set it.Originally Posted by pbs519
Optyl was introduced to the optical market in the late 1960s by Wilhelm Anger in Austria. They are injected frames and the material is very hard and brittle. When heating in glass beads watch out that the beads don't stick to the surface or they will mark the surface.
The first appearance of it was in the early 1970s in Canada where they got sold as the first designer name frames under the "Christian Dior" brand.
They where made in a Anger plant in Moncton NB that had been financed by the Canadian Government at 5 million Dollars to create Jobs in the area, and the land had been donated by the city of Mocton for the same reason.
When the finished frames where sold on the optical market they were all stamped "Made in Austria" and customs duties had to be paid on them.
Wilhel Anger only injected the fronts and the temples and sent them to Austria for finishing. He got the grants from the governments which had thought that they would make the whole finished frame in New Brunswick. So a Canadian made frame was marked as a made elsewhere, very similar as is happening these days with chinese made ones.
The plant went bancrupt in the mid seventies and the Royal Bank, the lender with government guarantees, sold it for 10 cents on the Dollar.
After that Optyl disapeared from the optical market for a long time, and so did the parent company in Europe.
Ughh- I feel so old.
Before the wheel was round we used it a lot. As an apprentice you couldn't go wrong learning to adjust patients eyewear If you screwed up just reheat it and would return to its original shape. Very high burning point as well. The key as Fezz says is to be sure it is hot enough to soften the epoxy since once cooled you cannot change its shape. It will flex or snap- period.
When I worked at a very busy shop in the 70's I would typically order boxes of 10 each size and color of the Optyl 1017. Hundreds at a time! A MONSTER success of a frame. It came in a 48 50 52 54 56 eye in a rainbow of colors. Lets see if I've forgotten any-
Cider
Red
Wine
Black
Blue
Green
and more???
Last edited by Uncle Fester; 10-12-2012 at 02:43 PM.
You forgot Brown, Grey, and blue.......fade.
Eyes wide open
Lens size...edge slightly larger than "on size". This material does not shrink!
Eyes wide open
If you really want to freak out another optician.................compact the bridge to a 10 mm. Then have them adjust them (heating the bridge) and watch the bridge expand back to a 20 mm. Notice the jaw drop, and the sweat on the brow forming......................as they try to create the same fit again.
Eyes wide open
When you're going to adjust the temples, heat them only enough to be able to just bend them. If you use too much heat, you will straighten them out and have no idea where you started from. It's much easier to make minor adjustments this way - and they will cool faster. This frame needs a certain amount of heat to bend, but as stated, it will take a ton of heat before blistering too (but they will if not careful). I think it might be a Love It or Hate It material, but personally I like working with it.
-Tony
I heard of a guy heating one up and squeezing it into a drink bottle and it returned to a reasonable form of its original shape. Said they had it on display in their office. Had a HUGE Christian Dior in the office a few days ago that way Optyl, I miss working with that stuff!
Clinton Tower
The intellect to live free is in short supply
ALT248=°
I remember using .50-1.00 mm oversize for proper fit.
dragonlensman had one in a bottle.
The original displays we got were like that, provided by Optyl. All I can add is think 1017 for you old opticians.
I think he gave it to NowIsee. But yes, I've seen the displays that Optyl used to give away.
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
Me too.
I thought optyl was the wonder material.
You wondered why they made frames out of it.
B
Also not mentioned was a lot of the old optyl frames had wonderful bridges for fitting ladies with small almost flat noses. The christian dior frames were wonderful for this. As best i can remember the bridge portion was slightly thicker then normal and angled sort of backwards, and that filled in the flat spot. kind of wonder why that is not done more today with ladies frames
A:?
Complete and total lack of institutional memory + china manufacturers' feel:
(As Abbott and Costello used to say in their classic skit "Who's on First?"):
Costello: "I don't give a darn!"
Abbott: "What'd you say?"
Costello: "I said 'I don't give a darn!'"
Abbott: "Oh! That's our shortstop!"
B
Last edited by Barry Santini; 10-14-2012 at 11:28 AM.
I think you will come to love it!
I find that, when fitted, Optyl frames are the most comfortable to wear since we can literally mould them around the patient, and as such they can be said to fit like a glove.
My one piece of advice would be to be extremely careful not to press too hard on Optyl when it is in its heated state, as the material can be maleable enough to take your fingerprints. I learned this the hard way!
If you are impressed with the Gucci Optyl frames I suggest trying Dior as they have even more pieces in their collection made from it.
I think I have a bottle with an Optyl frame in it somewhere.
The great thing about Optyl, besides the stuff already mentioned, is the amazing effects you can achieve in the plastic. Mottling effects, gold leaf effects. It retains a glossy surface because the resin is hard. The molding (or really casting) production process allowed unusual shapes. It was an artist's medium.
I collect old Dior frames; Playboy and other Optyl lines too. Here's a post about the first Optyl Dior frames:
http://theeyewearblog.com/frame-of-t...nglasses-6614/
I also collect Tura Dior frames which was the license holder from 1958 to 1966. In some ways their designs was more interesting:
http://theeyewearblog.com/christian-...ura-not-optyl/
The Tura collections were even sold with matching costume jewelry.
The Optyl lines of the 1970s and 1980s were a real design clinic, though. I haven't checked lately. How widely has Safilo revived optyl nowadays?
By the way you can also fix broken Optyl ......................................
By the way you can also fix broken Optyl. I came up with a solvent mix some years ago, that disolved the surface and could be fused together with an invisible mend.
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