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Ophthalmic lens generating is the first and most important step in creating a custom prescription eyeglass lens. It is a high-tech process where a machine uses a diamond cutter to rapidly carve the specific curves for your prescription onto the back surface of a lens blank. This is the stage where your unique vision correction is created.
read more about ophthalmic lens generating ...Generating is the first part of a two-step process called "surfacing." After the generator machine has cut the rough shape of your prescription, the lens surface is still hazy. The lens then goes through a second stage of fining and polishing. This second step uses smoothing pads and polish to make the surface perfectly clear and smooth for sharp vision.
The process starts with a semi-finished lens blank that has a smooth front surface. Your prescription numbers are entered into a computer, which creates a precise 3D map of the curves needed. The generator machine follows this map, cutting away material from the back of the blank to create the exact shape required to correct your nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism.
Modern optical labs use a technology called free-form generating, also known as digital surfacing. Unlike older methods that could only create simple curves, free-form generators use a single-point cutter that can carve highly complex and customized surfaces. This technology is what makes it possible to create the high-definition progressive and atoric lenses that offer wider and clearer fields of view.
If you were to look at a lens immediately after it leaves the generator, you wouldn't be able to see through it. The diamond cutter leaves the surface with a frosted, opaque appearance, covered in tiny swirl marks from the cutting tool. While the prescription curves are geometrically perfect at this stage, the lens is visually useless until it goes through the subsequent "fining" and "polishing" steps to make it transparent.
Yes. Any eyeglass lens that is custom-made for your specific prescription goes through the generating and surfacing process. The only exception would be simple, over-the-counter reading glasses which are mass-produced.
Generating is not done at a local optical store. It is performed at a large, specialized optical laboratory that has the expensive, high-tech machinery needed for the job.
No. Generating creates the prescription on the surface of the round lens. A different final step, called "edging," is when the lens is cut down to fit the specific shape of your eyeglass frame.
Generating is the foundational step that turns a simple plastic disc into a precise medical device. The accuracy of this process is the basis for the clear and comfortable vision you get from your finished eyeglasses. It is the high-tech start to creating the lenses that help you see the world.
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