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Spectacle lens production
From casting to freeform generation
Dr Peter Wilkinson PhD, BSc (Eng), CEng, MIMechE
This article describes the production techniques used to manufacture
‘basic’ uncut spectacle lenses. By ‘basic’ we mean excluding tinting and
coating. Both ‘mass’ and ‘Rx’ manufacturing are described, as these are
often complementary and sometimes use similar production techniques.
Many different lens manufacturing tech-
niques have been used over the decades,
some of which have now been abandoned.
They can, however, be divided into four
basic types:
1. Casting, where a finished or semi-fin-
ished lens is produced from raw chemi-
cals using a chemical process (e.g. CR39
casting)
2. Moulding, where the lens material
exists and it is reshaped by pressure and
heat into the finished or semi-finished
lens form (e.g. polycarbonate injection
moulding)
3. Multi-part systems, such as laminating
and fusing, where two or more pieces
are joined to form the final lens (e.g.
fused glass bifocals)
4. Surfacing, where the lens materials
already exist and cutting and/or grinding
and polishing is used to create the lens
form (e.g. Rx surfacing)
Many lenses are produced by combinations
of these four processes, the most common
being the mass manufacture of semi-fin-
ished resin (e.g. CR39) by casting, followed
by surfacing in an Rx laboratory to produce
the second surface. Glass lenses are, of
course, first moulded roughly to shape and
then surfaced on both sides.
Casting
Casting is the most common lens produc-
tion method in use today. It consists of plac-
ing some chemicals (e.g. CR39 monomer
plus a chemical catalyst) between two glass
(or metal) moulds held apart with a flexible
gasket, and then subjecting it to heat (or UV
energy). The material cures by polymerisa-
tion of the monomer into a polymer. An ini-
tial supply of energy is required to start the
process, but then the polymerisation
exotherms and cooling is sometimes
required to prevent overheating. (Exotherm
means that heat is created during the chem-
ical polymerisation process.) Because the
material exotherms from the centre, this
technique is difficult to use for thick lenses
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lens itself.
During the conversion from monomer to
polymer, the material shrinks (typically by
14%). About half of the shrinkage occurs
while the chemicals are still liquid, and this
necessitates a flexible gasket between the
two mould surfaces. However, a bigger prob- 2 standard CET points
lem occurs during the second half of the
polymerisation, because the lens material is
then fairly rigid. For lenses where there is a
1 CET point
big difference between the thickness of the
edge and the thickness of the centre of the
lens, the front and back moulds, and/or the
lens, must bend to prevent separation
between lens and mould causing a reject.
Obviously, this causes difficulties when cast- Sponsored by
ing high powered lenses.
Some companies have now replaced the
spring and edge gasket with an edge taping
system. The CR39 monomer is injected into
the mould cavity either at the edge of the
gasket or through the edge tape, and a small
gap allows any air to escape. Bubbles can
easily be left within the mould and hence
lens curing is done with the lenses posi-
tioned, so that any remaining bubbles are at
the edge of the lens blank rather than in the
centre.
Although many lens casting processes use
air to heat (and cool) the moulds, some man-
ufacturers use water baths because of
improved heat conduction. With a typical
curing cycle of about 18 hours, many lens
mass manufacturing casting production Module 4 Part 5
processes are worked on a 24-hour cycle on Understanding
what is called an ‘open-and-shut’ system. It is Lens Technology
very difficult to inspect moulds for surface
defects, but relatively easy to inspect finished
lenses. Operators open the moulds, remove
About the author
Dr Peter Wilkinson is a leading
the new lens, inspect it for defects and if authority on spectacle lens surface
there are none, immediately close the mould treatments. He has extensive
ready to manufacture another lens. This is, of practical experience in lens
course, done in an ultra-clean environment. manufacture, particularly in tinting,
AR and anti-abrasion coatings, and
The process is illustrated in Figure 1, with a holds senior positions in both the
photograph of the components of a mould BSI and International Standards
assembly shown in Figure 2. Organisations. He works at
Lens casting is primarily a mass manufac- Buckinghamshire Chilterns
University, supervising research and
turing process but many attempts have been developing links with industry, and
made to cast lenses to prescription. This has acts as a consultant in ophthalmic
not proved commercially successful. The optics
37 | May 19 | 2006 OT

CONTINUING EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Understanding Lens Technology Module 4 Part 5
Reassemble Filling with
mould monomer
‘Open-and-shut’
production method
Inspect Gasket Heat
lens removal polymerisation
Figure 1
Lens casting process
biggest problem (in the view of the author) sive segment. Being very thin, this could be
is that to the uninitiated person, lens casting done very quickly. In principle, this was a
looks so incredibly simple; you just fill the clever idea and some units were sold in the
mould, heat cure and remove the lens. In US. Apart from the production difficulties,
fact, it is far from easy, with high reject rates the growth of AR coating has virtually elim-
for the very lenses that are required for inated the market for in-practice lens cast-
spectacle prescriptions. As an example of ing systems; if the lens has to be sent away
this problem, the author was once told that for coating, then the lens production might
the reject rates in a factory were linked to as well also be done by the coating compa-
the square of the lens power, for example, ny. In fact, this is also sensible because full
planos had almost no rejects, 3.00D lenses knowledge of the lens material and its
had a 9% reject rate, 6.00D lenses a 36% method of manufacture can prevent prob-
reject rate and 9.00D lenses a 81% reject lems in the coating process.
rate.
Since the problems with casting relate to Moulding
the thickness of the lens, some interesting
ways of making prescription lenses have By moulding (compared to casting) we
been attempted. For example, the Innotech mean ‘reforming’ using pressure and heat.
Company took what were essentially fin- Originally used to create glass blanks (for
ished single vision lenses and then cast onto later grinding and polishing) moulding is
the front surface a thin multifocal/progres- now more commonly used to create poly-
carbonate lenses (remember that polycar-
Figure 2 bonate is a thermoplastic material, whereas
Components used for lens casting showing CR39 is a thermosetting resin).
the flexible gasket, the spring clip and the The first stage of the process is for a
top and bottom glass moulds chemical company to produce the polycar-
(by courtesy of Crossbows Optical) bonate material, usually in granular form.
These granules are then put into an injec-
tion moulding machine, heated and then
injected under pressure into a mould cavity.
Rather like casting, lens moulding is difficult
for high power and thick lenses due to
shrinkage as the newly formed lens cools.
This can be alleviated by complex modern
machines, which inject and then compress
the lens as it is cooling and solidifying.
Typically six or more lenses are produced at
the same time, all connected by the ‘sprue’
– the path along which the material is
injected into the mould. As all thermoplas-
Figure 3
The glass slumping process
38 | May 19 | 2006 OT
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tic lenses are soft and need hard-coating,
this sprue is often used to hold a group of
lenses during a dip-coating process.
Another moulding process, only used by
mass manufacturers, is called ‘slumping’.
This process is usually only used in the man-
ufacture of semi-finished progressive power
glass lenses, and is best illustrated in Figure
3. First a ceramic block is produced using a
3D, numerically controlled grinding
machine with the top side in the form of a
progressive power lens. A polished parallel
sided plano glass blank is then laid over the
ceramic block and subjected to a carefully
controlled heat process, sufficient to allow
the glass to bend but not to melt. This must
be done in a clean and dust-free oven to
prevent contamination of the upper surface
(although dust covers are also used). After
the heating process, the lens (with its fin-
ished progressive front surface) is removed
from the ceramic block. This semi-finished
lens then undergoes the normal Rx surfac-
ing of the rear surface. A similar system is
now used to produce glass moulds for later
use in casting thermosetting plastic (CR39)
progressive power lenses.
Multi-part
There are a number of different multi-part
processes. Probably the best known is the
method used to produce glass bifocals by
fusing a segment with a different refractive
index to make the reading addition section
of the lens. Figure 4 shows diagrammati-
cally how this is done for a flat-top bifocal.
Another multi-part system is the combi-
nation of two thin laminates to form a fin-
ished lens using a system called ‘Instalens’
(Polycore Optical). It is intended for use by
practices with small optical laboratories
who want to produce multifocal and pro-
gressive prescription uncut lenses within a
few minutes. A small stock of laminates is
required. White and photochromic materials
are available, with and without coatings, in
bifocal and progressive lens forms.
Essentially, the multifocal front laminate is
glued (using UV) to a rear laminate contain-
ing the distance prescription. In principle,
this is a clever method that permits the
rapid in-practice manufacture of finished
coated lenses. The cost of stockholding the
large numbers of component front and
back laminates is the major difficulty. The
production cost is relatively high because
what are essentially two lenses are required
to make each finished lens. There are some
other spectacle lenses produced by laminat-
ing, such as laminated safety lenses, polaris-
ing lenses and diving goggles.
Surfacing
Surfacing is the most common lens manu-
facturing technique (with the possible
exception of mass production casting of
single vision uncut lenses). There are three
main types of surfacing processes,
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Make the major portion of the
lens using a traditional process
Cut a curved section to accept
the bifocal segment
Combine all parts by a heat fusing process
Remove excess material by grinding
Figure 4
The manufacture of glass multifocal lenses by fusing
although with many variants for special
applications particularly in relation to the
production of progressive power lenses.
They are:
• Rough grind, smooth and polish,
where all processes involve a lapping tool.
Modern systems usually do the initial
roughing stage using a lapping tool with
a diamond abrasive embedded into a
metal matrix. This system is only used in
large volume glass production processes
because it requires separate grinding,
smoothing and polishing laps for each
curvature
• Generate, smooth and polish, where a
cup-shaped cutting wheel is used to gen-
erate a spherical or toroidal curve, fol-
lowed by lapping tool smoothing and
polishing. This is the method used in most
prescription laboratories. Again, different
smoothing and polishing laps are
required but a common machine is used
for the grinding stage
• Cut, smooth and polish, where a single
point cutter is used in a process usually
referred to as ‘freeform’. This is particu-
larly applicable to progressive lens sur-
faces. After single point cutting, the
surface can be smoothed and polished in
the same way as if a cup-wheel generator
had been used. However, current devel-
opments are aimed at omitting the
smoothing stage
CONTINUING EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Make the low Make the high
index portion index portion
of the lens of the lens
using a using a
traditional traditional
process process
Rough grind, smooth and polish
This is the oldest system in existence. Apart
from the use of an electric motor to rotate
the lenses against the grinding tool,
Leonardo da Vinci would have fully
comprehended any modern process of
grinding, smoothing and polishing a lens
surface. A poker arm machine is the most
basic version, and is illustrated in Figure 5.
At each stage, finer and finer materials
are used working on a ratio of about 10:1
between stages. For example, the first
process is to obtain a rough shape by the
removal of about 2mm of glass using a
0.2mm diameter grit. This leaves imperfec-
tions in the surface of about 0.2mm. The
second stage removes about 0.2mm using
0.02mm abrasive, and leaves imperfections
of about 0.02mm. The final polishing stage
usually removes about 0.02mm, using
0.002mm abrasive and leaves a surface with
0.002mm imperfections (0.002mm = 2
microns). Since the eye cannot see individ-
ual particles less than about 20 microns, the
resulting surface appears highly polished.
There are many clever techniques used in
production to ensure that the correct curva-
ture of the surface is achieved. For example,
the lapping tool always oscillates so that a
constant curvature without surface waves is
obtained, the radius of curvature can be
gradually decreased by preferentially oscil-
lating towards the edge of the tool and vice
versa. More accurate curves can be
achieved by multi-blocking a number of
lenses onto a large ‘block’, and true flats
can be achieved by interchanging three flat
tools.
Production systems for the mass manu-
facture of spherical glass lenses using the
rough grind, smooth and polish process
usually start with a tool that has fine dia-
mond particles embedded into a metal
bond. The author introduced a system using
this method into a UK Optical factory over
25 years ago. It enabled 30-second grind-
ing, 30-second smoothing and two-minute
polishing to be achieved on spherical glass
lenses where one operator produced a fin-
ished lens every 30 seconds from a bank of
12 machines (a grinder, smoother and four
polishers for the convex surface and the
same for the concave surface).
This system of using lapping tools for all
stages is only suitable for mass production
because of the large investment required in
tooling. Most surfacing production uses a
generation stage (see next), in which one
machine can be adjusted to generate differ-
ent curves as described in the next section.
Generate, smooth and polish
The key component of a generate, smooth
and polish system is the generating
machine. This usually consists of a tubular
shaped ‘cup-wheel’ rotating cutter with a
curved end, as illustrated in Figure 6. The
cutter is mounted on a swinging arm and
can be tilted so that the combination of
swing and tilt can produce the two
different curves of a toroidal surface.
Cutting with a tilted circular cutter does
not actually produce a circular cut, but an
elliptical curve. The elliptical error is not
large enough to be significant to the optical
power of a lens, but can be significant to
the manufacturing process. It should be
remembered that the smoothing and pol-
ishing tools may be accurate circular shapes,
Figure 5
Poker arm grinding machine
Poker Operator’s
arm handle
pivot
Lap pivot
Lapping tool
Lens on a
rotating
wheel
Figure 6
Illustration of how a
generator cuts a toroidal surface
Swing radius Tilt
Rotating cutter radius
(defines sphere (defines cylinder
curve) curve)
Lens
blank
39 | May 19 | 2006 OT

CONTINUING EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Understanding Lens Technology Module 4 Part 5
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or may have been produced using a process
that also involves elliptical errors. It is the
discrepancies between the elliptical curva-
tures of the generation, smoothing and pol-
ishing tools that may cause some difficulties
in the lens making process (see later).
The key part of a generate, smooth and
polish process is the generator itself. Very
old machines had to have the radii of the
two curvatures set manually before the cut-
ting commenced, although this is now done
automatically through electronic controls.
Figure 7 shows a typical ‘conventional’ lens
generator.
When a generator is combined with some
smoothing and polishing machines, it cre-
ates a prescription lens manufacturing sys-
tem suitable for a small Rx laboratory. Such
a laboratory requires not only the generator, Figure 7
smoothing and polishing machines, but also A lens generator (by courtesy of Norville Autoflow)
a rack of lapping tools, a blocking and
de-blocking unit and other ancillary
equipment. A typical unit is illustrated in
Figure 8.
A considerable inventory of lapping tools
is required to produce the combination of
spherical and cylindrical curves commonly
used in a prescription laboratory. At the very
least, tools for every quarter dioptre, from
perhaps plano to 12.00D curves with zero
to 6.00 cylinders – not an inconsiderable
number is required. Because of the wide
variety of different refractive index materials
now in use, many more tools, normally in
eighth dioptre increments are required, as
well as a few tools of each sphere and cylin-
der combination. To prevent damage and Figure 8
wear to the accurate tool curves, a system A small prescription laboratory showing
of applying replaceable abrasive and polish- (clockwise): lens design computer, surface
ing pads onto the same tool has been saver tape dispenser, lens blocker, lens
evolved. The pads have a special shape to deblocker, lapping tool rack, lens
allow them to adapt to the curvature of the generator, smoothing machine and polish-
tool (Figure 9). ing machines (by courtesy of Norville Autoflow)
Other techniques, where for example the
polishing stage is replaced by lacquer coat-
ing, have been created and these are
described later in the section on recent
developments.
Mention should also be made here of the
number of smoothing stages. With modern
equipment, it is usually possible to go from
generating to polishing with only one
smoothing stage, but historically two stages
of smoothing were often used. Obviously
there is a trade-off between the amount of
material removed and the smoothness of Figure 9
the surface. Remember that sufficient mate- Smoothing and polishing pads
rial must be removed to clear surface cracks (by courtesy of Norville Autoflow)
and curvature inaccuracy (including elliptical
errors) left by the generating stage. Advice de-blocking, etc.
on the choice of smoothing and polishing The first essential is to calculate the curva-
pads is freely available from the suppliers of ture of the lens surface to be produced. This
prescription laboratory consumables, who requires knowledge of the semi-finished
can provide complete systems as a turnkey curvature, the material refractive index and
operation, including operator training. the desired lens power. For plus power lens-
In addition to the generating, smoothing es, a knowledge of the frame shape is also
and polishing machines, many other pieces required so that the thinnest possible uncuts
of equipment are needed to complete the may be produced allowing just sufficient
surfacing process, including lens tool calcu- thickness at the critical point around the cir-
lation, lens surface protection, blocking and cumference. For aspheric and progressive
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power lenses, prism thinning may also be
required to produce the best balanced lens-
es. The computer software to carry out
these calculations is complex, but is avail-
able from the surfacing machinery suppliers.
Having calculated the surfacing require-
ments, the next stage is to select the semi-
finished blank, protect it with surface saver
tape (Figure 10) and then mount it onto an
alloy block. Ready blocked lenses, together
with the lens calculation computer printout,
are then placed into a work-tray
(Figure 11). The lenses then go through the
generating, smoothing and polishing
stages, are de-blocked and inspected.
Cut, smooth and polish
Using a traditional cup-wheel generator
restricts the shape of the surface (ignoring
elliptical errors) to either a sphere or to a
toroidal section, the latter being of course
two circular arcs at right angles to each
other.
The key difference between a ‘generated’
curve and a ‘cut’ curve is that the latter is
produced by a single point cutter, and
hence elliptical errors can be eliminated. A
single point cutting tool has one big advan-
tage (and a big disadvantage). In its favour
is the ability to cut any curve, even a com-
plex progressive or aspheric, or even a com-
bination of these. The disadvantages are the
cost and complexity of the machinery, that
it can take much longer for the whole sur-
face to be cut, and also it is difficult to avoid
a ‘pip’ at the central point of the cutting
action. Remember that a single point tool is
only cutting one point at a time, whereas a
generator is cutting a whole section or arc
at the same time.
When cutting a non-spherical curve, a
single point cutting tool needs to oscillate at
right angles to the lens surface. For a toric
curve, this requires two in-out oscillations
Figure 12a
Initial stage freeform cutting
(by courtesy of DAC International)
CONTINUING EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Figure 10
Surface saver tape and taping machines
(by courtesy of Norville Autoflow)
per lens revolution. This requires great accu-
racy and can involve considerable inertia
forces. The cutter should therefore be as
light as possible, but must be very rigidly
mounted. The faster the lens rotation
speed, the greater are the inertia forces, and
it is this which may limit the total cutting
time.
A close-up of a lens cutting tool is shown
in Figure 12. Figure 12a shows the rough
cut tool, and Figure 12b the fine cut tool.
Oscillation of the tool presents considerable
technical challenges due to the wear in
mechanical parts. At least one machinery
company has developed an air-slide mount-
ed diamond tool assembly to minimise fric-
tion and machine wear, and also a
‘voice-coil’ driven oscillation system thereby
eliminating electro-mechanical motions.
The development of numerically con-
trolled ‘freeform’ surface cutting machines
means that it is now possible to produce
one-off prescriptions for progressive power
lenses allowing for an individual’s personal
requirements including facial features, dif-
ferent distance and reading PDs, different
Figure 12b
Finish stage freeform cutting
(by courtesy of DAC International)
Figure 11
Lens work tray
(by courtesy of Norville Autoflow)
lengths for the corridor between distance
and reading optical centres and other fac-
tors. Considerable computing power is
required to calculate the motion required
from the cutting tool as the lens rotates, so
a powerful computer is necessary.
There is of course another major problem
associated with a freeform surface shape –
and that is how to smooth and polish it.
This problem was overcome many years ago
when glass progressives were first pro-
duced. One system was to carry out the
smoothing using a very small diameter flex-
ible diamond pad, although this was of
course a slow process. The polishing was
then done on what was called a ‘drum’ pol-
isher. This consisted of a polishing material
stretched across what looked like a drum,
with compressed air underneath the materi-
al so that it flexed to take up the progressive
shape of the surface. Inevitably, flexible
smoothing and polishing causes some
degradation of the desired/designed surface
(making it less undulating) but nevertheless
a satisfactory product can be produced.
Also available are flexible soft-lap ‘bal-
loon’ polishing tools (Figure 13, which
shows three soft-lap tools which between
them cater for all of the curvatures
required). Inevitably, some accuracy is lost
and so the smoothness of the cutting action
is crucial to the viability of the whole
process. The finer the cut surface, the less
Figure 13
Soft lap polishing tools
(by courtesy of DAC International)
41 | May 19 | 2006 OT
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CONTINUING EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Understanding Lens Technology Module 4 Part 5

smoothing is required, and hence less dis-
tortion occurs to the desired surface shape.
In Figure 12, two cutting tools can be seen,
one used to roughly shape the surface and
the other to create a finer surface. This two-
stage single point diamond cutting reduces
the amount of polishing required.
Many other methods have been tried, but
the current favoured option is to use a hard-
coating lacquer to convert a smoothed sur-
face into what looks like a polished surface.
While it is still not possible to go directly
from cutting to hardcoating, this will no
doubt become possible in the future in
what may be called a ‘cut-and-coat’
process.
The ability of hardcoats to disguise minor
defects (where very minor blemishes on lens
surfaces can be ‘filled-in’ with a lacquer) is
already used in large production operations
resulting in a higher production yield.
Obviously major defects cannot be
corrected – but very small defects can be
disguised resulting in a satisfactory final
product.
Future developments
While the mass production of single vision
lenses is likely to continue much as before,
mainly by using casting and moulding
processes, the future for prescription lenses
is more difficult to predict. Many attempts
have been made to develop new processes,
cast to Rx, front surface casting, laminating,
etc. Most people think that the ultimate
goal is the aforementioned cut-and-coat
process. However, with a high percentage
of lenses now requiring an AR treatment, it
is the AR coating that may in future become
the major delay in the manufacture of a
prescription lens.
Large, complex high volume coating
machines are now required to produce the
latest generation of modern coatings,
which include hydrophobic and oleophobic
properties, and it is logistically difficult for
these to produce prescription lenses rapidly.
The future of lens manufacture therefore
needs a breakthrough in coating methods if
delivery time is to be reduced. The produc-
tion of a dip-coated, single layer AR coating
has been attempted and although this
would reduce costs, it seems unlikely to suc-
ceed commercially because of the current
requirement for multi-layer AR coupled with
a hydrophobic topcoat.
Front-side coated, semi-finished lenses
have also been produced. This means that
only one side needs to be AR coated after
surfacing, reducing the production time.
This development was done as a collabora-
tion between a machinery company and a
one-hour optical chain, which intended to
use a small four-lens AR coating machine
needing only 15 minutes for the plasma sys-
tem coating process.
It now seems that the way forward for
surfacing may become the cut-and-coat sys-
tem using lacquer hardcoating, but this
does not resolve the problem of rapid AR
coating to the modern sophisticated stan-
dards. Perhaps a dual market will evolve,
with rapid relatively low cost production of
less complex products in parallel with longer
time scale, higher cost sophisticated lenses.

Module questions Course code: c-2870

Please note, there is only one correct answer. Enter online or by using the form provided

1. Why does exotherm cause d. Reusing lens moulds after a d. To cut a spherical surface with a formed cup
a casting problem? production shut-down tool
a. Because thin lenses cool too quickly
b. Because thick lenses overheat 5. What is slumping commonly used for? 9. What is the ratio of grit sizes when
c. Because thin lenses overheat a. Creating a spherical lens mould surfacing?
d. Because thick lenses cool too quickly b. Forming a polished progressive surface by a. 2.0mm : 0.2mm : 0.02micron
heat b. 2.0mm : 0.2micron : 0.02micron
2. Why is a flexible gasket required c. Forming a progressive surface ready to polish c. 2.0mm : 0.2mm : 0.002mm
for lens casting? d. Casting polymer lenses d. 2.0mm : 1.0mm: 0.1mm
a. Because the lens edges need to flex
b. Because the monomer exotherms 6. What is a poker arm? 10. How can lens curves be gradually
c. Because shrinkage occurs as the polymer a. An arm on a single point cutting machine changed during a lapping process?
converts to a monomer b. An arm used to clamp casting moulds a. By preferentially oscillating to edge or centre
d. Because the monomer shrinks during c. An arm used on modern polishing machines b. By preferentially applying different pressures
polymerisation d. A manual system for producing lens surfaces c. By cutting a new lapping tool
d. By rotating the lens at a different speed
3. How are central lens bubbles prevented? 7. What is a cup-wheel cutter used for?
a. By stacking lens casting moulds on edge a. To generate progressive lens surfaces 11. What system prevents damage and wear
b. By stacking lens casting moulds flat b. To create progressive lens surfaces to polishing tools?
c. By using a flexible gasket c. For lens smoothing and polishing a. The use of replaceable tool holders
d. By expansion due to monomer exotherm d. To generate lens surfaces b. The use of protective lacquer
e. To single point cut surfaces c. The use of permanently adhered pads
4. What is meant by ‘open-and-shut’ d. The use of replaceable pads
production? 8. What is meant by ‘freeform’?
a. Opening to inspect the lens mould a. To generate an elliptical form with a free 12. What causes elliptical error?
then refilling shape cutter a. Using a tilted cup-wheel
b. Opening the lens mould before b. To cut a surface in any shape with a comput- generating machine
recleaning it for reuse er controlled machine b. Using a tilted single point cutting tool
c. Opening the mould to inspect c. To slump a surface into any freely designed c. Using a replaceable polishing pad
the lens then refilling form d. Using a toroidal cutting tool

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MODULE 4 PART 6
Understanding Lens Technology – June 16, 2006

42 | May 19 | 2006 OT