Manufacturing Oakley Sunglasses

Sunglasses are trendy fashion accessories that make you look and feel cool, but have you ever wondered how those cool shades are made? Mens Sunglasses are my favourite and come in many styles, shapes, colors and brands. There are polarised sunglasses, prescription, clip-on, flexible, men's, women's, unisex, children's, designer, and custom-made sunglasses. There are oakley, ray ban and dolce & gabanna sunglasses, golf, sking and other sports sunglasses. You can also find sunglasses with built in mp3 players. How are all these different sunglasses made?

Lets start with the lenses. The better quality lenses are made from glass but are more vulnerable to scratches than the plastic alternative. Photo chromic lenses darken in reaction to light. Glass photo chromic lenses are more efficient in the reduction of Ultra Violet light rays. Some lenses have a gradient tint that means they are darker at the top then the bottom. Materials used for tinting polarized lenses are generally brown or gray. Any color tint can be used for high index, Trivex, and polycarbonate.

The different colour tints will alter the level of protection from ultra violet rays. For example, amber and brown do a better job of absorbing the UV light. You can treat clear lenses with anti-reflective coatings to improve their protection. It is possible to achieve total UV protection using these methods. Any anti reflective addition to the lense also has the added benefit of protecting against scratches.

The first step before tinting is making sure that the lens will fit the frame, this is done by grinding. Also, the lens has to be ground according to the prescription in order to solve refractive errors in the customer's vision . Myopic problems are common these days and will require a prescription lens to solve. You can also get bifocals, trifocals and progressive bifocals to help with any problems in seeing that you may have.

The grinder that is used to grind the lenses to the specifications of the prescription is called an edger. There is a constant source of water running over the lens while it is being ground in order to reduce the heat caused by friction on the glass. This heat build up can cause the glass to crack and eventually break so is vital. It also makes the process smoother and brings about a much better shaped lense.

When the grinding is completed and the lenses are cleaned, tint is added to the lens by dipping the lens in a tint solution which is absorbed into the lens . You simply increase the time that the absorption takes place to increase the darkness of the tint. Once done the lens is rinsed and dried then slotted into the sunglasses frame and secured. The frame itself is produced from a variety of products including metal, plastic, nylon as well as more exotic materials such as carbon fibre.

The process of making sunglasses has come a long way from when Roman Emperor Nero held polished light emerald glass gems up to his eyes and Chinese attached ceramic weights to the ends of ribbons draped over the ears in order to keep on their cool sunglasses. My personal favourite, the latest Oakley sunglasses, will amaze you.