Looking into the Future of digital lenses

**RIMLESS** · 10-15-2013, 02:37 PM

Anyone have any thoughts about future 3D printing technology being able to produce an optical quality lens than could simply be edged??
What a game changer that would be. Please chime in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Pogu** · 10-15-2013, 02:52 PM

It's probably gonna be a while, but I want it to happen. The amount of waste in creating a pair of glasses annoys me, additive manufacturing is totally the future. The equipment is going to have to be able to lay down material perfectly to produce a optically pure lens, I bet this would be hard to accomplish with current technology.

The advantages would be huge though! Both surface optimized however they need be, massive reduction in waste material, reduction in chemical exposure for operators. If the technology allowed multiple materials one could vary the index of refraction for the last layers to make an anti reflective lens, then you could print the lens with the bevel in place no edging required.

That's the stuff I hope develops anyways

**RIMLESS** · 10-15-2013, 03:14 PM

Good point. Our current fabrication methods are a size 10 1/2 on the carbon footprint scale.

**Jacqui** · 10-15-2013, 03:38 PM

Someone in The Netherlands has supposedly done it successfully. I don't know any more about it, but it was reported in one of the trade journals a short time back.

**Uncle Fester** · 10-15-2013, 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by Pogu

It's probably gonna be a while, but I want it to happen. The amount of waste in creating a pair of glasses annoys me, additive manufacturing is totally the future. The equipment is going to have to be able to lay down material perfectly to produce a optically pure lens, I bet this would be hard to accomplish with current technology.

The advantages would be huge though! Both surface optimized however they need be, massive reduction in waste material, reduction in chemical exposure for operators. If the technology allowed multiple materials one could vary the index of refraction for the last layers to make an anti reflective lens, then you could print the lens with the bevel in place no edging required.

That's the stuff I hope develops anyways

A post a while back said that a barrel of poly makes 3,000 or more lenses for was it something around a few hundred dollars? Or was it $3000 for 10,000 lenses depending on power? Gonna be tough to beat that price per lens.

**Pogu** · 10-15-2013, 05:05 PM

I wonder if that's creating finished or semi-finished blanks. Either way I'm gonna grind it into a ~50mm x 30mm final shape as thin as I can, and throw most of it in the trash. Printing our own would have us dealing with the guys selling the barrels, of whatever material worked out to be viable.

**RIMLESS** · 10-15-2013, 05:18 PM

Imagine if it developed to the point that you could fabricate the lenses along with the frame as one unit. Or even the potential to print wearable contact lenses?????

**Pogu** · 10-15-2013, 06:50 PM

Now that you mention it CLs might be easier to make.

**duncanw** · 10-16-2013, 08:42 AM

The key will be I think printing at high temperature into an extremely cold enviroment.

This will provide less optical distortion, as the lens is formed from a liquid becoming solid...
Timing would have to be very precise, it would be interesting to see it come true.

**Rafael** · 10-16-2013, 04:22 PM

Jacqui this is correct, the company is called LUXeXceL : http://www.luxexcel.com/#

Here you can read more, also about 3D Printing of thin films

http://www.optiboard.com/forums/show...light=printing

**Uncle Fester** · 10-18-2013, 03:45 PM

Would this len materials meet US safety standards?

**Chris Ryser** · 10-19-2013, 02:27 AM

Find out all about it: -----------------> http://www.printedledoptics.com/home/

**fjpod** · 10-19-2013, 03:50 AM

It will happen someday...probably sooner than we think, and at a cost that will approach reasonable.

I used to argue with a colleague of mine that digital ocular photography would never equal the quality of film photography. Boy, was I wrong.

Go back 20 years...whoda thunk we would be sculpting corneas to produce zero refractive errors?

**sharpstick777** · 10-31-2013, 04:18 PM

Originally Posted by duncanw

The key will be I think printing at high temperature into an extremely cold enviroment.

This will provide less optical distortion, as the lens is formed from a liquid becoming solid...
Timing would have to be very precise, it would be interesting to see it come true.

I think it would also have to occur in a chamber filled with heavy gas, like argon, super cooled. The problem would be to insure that cooling happened quickly, but not too quickly, as unwelcome variations would occur.