How Sunglasses Are Made

Sunglasses are trendy fashion accessories that make you look and feel cool, but have you ever wondered how those cool shades are made? Sunglasses come in many styles, shapes, colors and brands. There are polarized, prescription, clip-on, flexible, men's, women's, unisex, children's, designer, and custom-made sunglasses. There are police, pilot and rescue sunglasses, biker, skier and other sports sunglasses. There are even sunglasses with built-in audio digital players. How are all these different sunglasses made?

Sunglasses have various types of lenses. Glass lenses have better visual quality and are more scratch-resistant than plastic ones. Photo chromic lenses darken in reaction to light. Glass photo chromic lenses are more efficient in the reduction of Ultra Violet light rays. Gradient Lenses are darker on top and gradually become lighter toward 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.

Different color lenses give different levels of protection from the UV rays of the sun. For example, amber and brown do a better job of absorbing the UV light. Treatment of clear lenses with anti-reflective coatings will protect the eyes from UV radiation. The best level of protection from UV rays is 100 per cent. The anti-reflective coating has an additional benefit of helping to protect the lenses from some surface scratches.

Before tinting, lenses need to properly fit in the selected previously manufactured frame; therefore, the lens needs to be ground to fit the frame's size and shape. Also, the lens has to be ground according to the prescription in order to solve refractive errors in the customer's vision. Myopic vision is one example of an eye problem that would require a prescription for sunglasses. Other sunglasses prescriptions could be for bifocals, progressive bifocals and trifocals which would require a larger size lens to accommodate the lens progression.

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. The friction heat can cause glass to crack or break. Water also makes the grinding easier and smoother on the edge and prevents scratching of the surface from dry glass grit.

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. The longer it is dipped, the darker the tint. The lenses are thoroughly rinsed and dried then are fit into the sunglasses frame and the frame is secured tightly around the lens by tightening the screws on the frame. Sunglasses frames are mass-produced from products like plastic, nylon, carbon fiber and metal.

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.

All About Sunglasses

Any time of year, sunglasses should be a part of your daily heath-consciousness routine. Sunglasses are not just for summers on the beach anymore or just for looking cool and mysterious. Designer sunglasses are no longer just for wealthy movie stars. Sunglasses are crucial in protecting your eyes from the permanent damaging effects of Ultra Violet radiation.

Sunglasses in some form have been around for a very long time. Roman Emperor Nero made sunglasses by watching gladiator competitions through polished light emerald green gems held up to his eyes. The true invention of sunglasses was somewhere between 1268 and 1289.

Before 1430, smoky quartz, flat-paned sunglasses were worn by Judges in the Courts of China to conceal any expression in their eyes. Prescription sunglasses were developed in Italy in 1430 and were later used by the Chinese Judges. In the mid 18th Century, James Ayscough developed blue and green corrective lenses, beginning the use of sunglasses for correcting optical impairments.

Until 1730 when Edward Scarlett invented hardened sidepieces, there were problems in keeping eyeglasses propped on the nose. Glasses frames had been made from leather, bones and metal and sidepieces began as silk strips of ribbon that looped around the ears. Instead of loops, the Chinese added ceramic weights to the ends of the ribbons. Benjamen Franklin's invention of bifocal lenses followed in 1780.

By the 20th Century, sunglasses were used to protect the eyes from the sun. In 1929 Sam Foster's "Foster Grants" were the first mass-produced sunglasses and they began the trend of sunglasses for fashion.

In the 1930's the Army Air Corps asked Bausch & Lomb to develop sunglasses that would efficiently reduce high-altitude sun glare for pilots and they came up with dark green tinted sunglasses that absorbed light through the yellow spectrum.

Edward H. Land had invented the Polaroid filter and by 1936 he used it in making sunglasses and soon, sunglasses became "cool." Movies stars began wearing sunglasses to hide behind and for fashion. Aviator glasses became popular with the movie stars and the general public in 1937 after Ray Ban developed the anti-glare sunglasses using polarization. The longer lens was created to give more protection to pilots' eyes from light reflecting off their control panels.

By the 1970's Hollywood stars and fashion designers made a huge impact on the sunglasses market. Clothing designers and stars put their names on glasses and sunglasses and everyone had to have them. In 2007, stars are still hiding behind their oversized designer sunglasses, making fashion statements and protecting their eyes from the harmful effects of the Ultra Violet radiation.
Today's trendy designer sunglasses are a status symbol; however, in order to be fashionable in sunglasses, you do not have to give up quality. Quality designer sunglasses can be polarized to reduce the glare of sunlight reflecting off surfaces like the highway, cars, water or snow. Polarized sunglasses work by blocking off horizontal light reflections and only let in vertical light reflections. The polarization of designer sunglasses makes them fashionable in other areas of lifestyle like golfing, boating, biking, swimming, fishing and aircraft flying.

Marketers of designer sunglasses target children who choose the same hot styles and brand-names as their parents and their idols. Sunglasses for children have Disney and cartoon characters in many colors, shapes and styles. Children's designer sunglasses can also be polarized to block the harmful UV radiation.

With modern technology and improvements, the making of sunglasses continues to evolve. We have gone from holding green gems up to our eyes to Oakley's 2004 sunglasses with digital audio players built in.