eye on equipment

Supply Line

Karen Gillen

What are the ancillary supplies you should have in order to accomplish surfacing for a small-to-mid-sized in-house laboratory? Consider the following.

THINK PADS

First, think pads. Two things must be taken into consideration: your equipment and the mix of lens materials to be processed.

If you have a three-axis generator, you'll maximize processing times and lens quality by utilizing a one-step pad system. If the equipment is older, you'll likely use a two-step pad system. The pads and polish selected are based on your product mix.

When coupled with a new technology polish, today's specially designed fining pads deliver optimum lens quality results. With the variety of pads on the market, it's best to consult with a trusted vendor representative to get an evaluation and recommendation for which products will meet your needs.

LAP TOOLING

Second, correct lap tooling is necessary. A good set of laps is likely the most important investment you have in your lab to control your process. Today the industry standard for new tool sets is an index of 1.6 inches with 1/10 diopter increments and no pad compensation.

This higher tooling index gives a closer one-to-one match with higherindex material, resulting in tighter tolerances. Because of the increase in semi-permanent base pads, it's not recommended to cut the tool with pad compensation.

It's better to allow individual lab software to calculate the entire pad stack thickness and adjust the generated curve and subsequent tool. The recommended lap material is aluminum because aluminum is durable, is better for holding the proper curve than plastic, and is able to do the best job at removing heat from the fining and polishing process.

One way to go green is to apply your gray water—water recovered from the system and recycled—to various non-potable uses.

FILTERING SYSTEMS

Charting can make ordering easy. A leading contributor to good process control and lens quality is the use of a central slurry and recycling filtering systems. These units—available in several sizes—provide an easy mechanism to control your process by consolidating fluids for easy temperature control and maintenance, saving large amounts of water, coolant, and polish by reusing what's in the system.

Recycling and filtration systems basically work the same way. These systems can save thousands of gallons of water or coolant daily and allow you to comply with EPA guidelines. EB

Karen Gillen is the marketing manager at Practical Systems, Inc. (PSI).