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Blog > Anti-reflective coating > Confidence in Performance and Quality: How TechShield Sets the Bar High for Enabled Partner Labs
Most patients (and many eye care professionals) never think about what it takes to make high-quality eyewear. Lens enhancements like TechShield® Anti-Reflective Coatings rely on a network of independent labs across the country to produce thousands of eyeglasses every day. Why is this important? If your qualified or enabled lab applies enhancements in-house, these practices get a premium anti-reflective coating product with guaranteed quality as fast as possible.
As part of the Unity® Distributor Lab Network, these experts and technicians make sure lenses that include TechShield Anti-Reflective Coatings meet the highest standards. We interviewed independent labs to get more information and their point of view.
Simplify Optics is a state-of-the-art laboratory owned and operated by Keith Grossman, Noel Diaz and Javan Diaz. Second generation lab owner-operators, these folks know optics and have been applying TechShield to all lens designs for years.
Q: Are there any challenges you face when producing TechShield AR coatings?
A: Making a high-quality AR coating of any kind has challenges because it’s a complex process with multiple layers on a substrate. Simplify is an enabled lab so we produce the lenses here and take on the ownership of the coating performance from beginning to end. Our quality control must meet specific requirements, and while it can be difficult, the results are what matter.
Q: What exactly is involved with testing and quality control?
A: We check for weathering, impact resistance, adhesion, and cleanability. If any of these parameters fail, we’ll be alerted. Because of our testing and quality control, this is a rare event. Businesses like ours thrive when you make a high-quality product, and that’s why we’re in the business of making TechShield.
Q: As an enabled lab, what is different from what you do versus other labs?
A: Since we are responsible and control the entire process, we must invest in specialized equipment so we can match the theoretical designs sent to us with no deviation. The designers are the driving engine behind the lens; our job is to replicate exactly what they ask us to make.
It’s this kind of attention to detail that we entrust for the Unity network of labs. We talked to another lab to see if they agreed.
R&D Optical Lab has been producing innovative optical technologies for decades. We talked to Gregory Novak, their chief operating officer, and here is what he had to say about the quality control measures in place at their lab.
Q: What do you think are the most important steps in ensuring that TechShield AR Coatings are of the highest quality?
A: In a word, measuring. A premium AR coating like TechShield Blue can have as many as seven layers of coatings added to the substrate. People don’t realize how thin each layer is; we are talking nano-level thickness. But each layer, whether anti-glare, hydrophobic, or blue light filtration, must be precise. If one layer is off by a micron, all the layers are off and you have a problem.
Q: How do you make sure that this does not happen?
A: We have a very skilled Q&A team and advanced equipment, but at the end of the day, we follow the requirements expected of us from the TechShield team. The requirements are difficult and strict, but we follow them to the letter for a reason. Imagine if the temperature of the substrate is wrong and it’s wrong for five days. How many jobs will go wrong? We’re held to one of the highest standards in the industry for quality control, and that’s what I appreciate because it makes our lab the best it can be. Who better to tell us how to make TechShield than the designer of the product?
Q: How invested is your lab in quality control?
A: We’re very invested in QC. When you’re putting down a 7-layer coating and one measurement is off, the lenses may be fine for six months, but something will eventually go wrong. The lens will peel, or crack and you’ll have returns. And not just one or two returns; it could be hundreds of returns. Because of the strict requirements we’re held to and quality control measures we take, this does not happen.
Thanks to our carefully vetted network of lab partners, TechShield continues to grow and remains a clear, durable, easy-to-clean premium anti-reflective coating for practices who want to give patients exceptional vision.
See what these and more labs bring to your practices and ask for a demo.