Although I have worn rigid gas permeable contact lenses for about 20 years (since I was eight years old), I never really considered how they were made. Between losing and breaking them (not to mention outgrowing them), I have managed to require multiple pairs, over the years, so I probably should have taken the time to think through why it is, exactly, that they cost what they do. Especially while I was still living at home, under the roof of Dad’s paying for such expenses, my parents probably would have appreciated a little more thoughtfulness on the matter.
As these thoughts scampered through my mind, my curiosity was piqued, and I jumped online, this morning. After all, where else would someone in this day and age go looking for information on something as obscure as the manufacture of rigid gas permeable contact lenses? As it turns out, the details of the process are, apparently, more obscure than I realized. Even after working through the first three or four pages of Google’s organic listings of search results for two or three different sets of search terms, I couldn’t find out what I wanted to know, other than what I learned from Wikipedia’s “Contact lens” entry. The article discussed manufacturing only briefly and listed the following as types of lenses, based on manufacturing style: spin-cast, lathe cut, molded, and hybrids.
Despite the scarcity of readily-available information regarding the manufacture of contact lenses, I do know that Bausch & Lomb is one of the four major manufacturers in the field. I also know that Bausch & Lomb is a customer of Three M Tool, in York, Pennsylvania. Granted, I haven’t been able to determine what products they buy from Three M Tool, but among the many custom wire racks and industrial wire baskets www.ThreeMTool.com offers, several of the designs featured are engineered specifically for clients in the medical industry, and there are many that could be quite serviceable in the optical manufacturing field.
Among the products specified as playing a role in the medical industry is the “Custom Canister for Small Medical Parts,” a split canister with walls of steel perforated with 0.028” holes. This one may not be designed for Bausch & Lomb, but there are many such canisters, baskets, racks, and crates of this and just about all other shapes, sizes, materials, and finishes. Although they have many different examples in their gallery, the engineers at Three M Tool will work with you to suit your particular needs.
Whether your field lies in the realm of medicine, optical manufacturing, or pharmaceutical or it’s more along the lines of commercial food service, aerospace, or precision manufacturing, Three M Tool can help you get the custom wire baskets you need. They require no minimum order, and they offer myriad options that you can tweak, as is appropriate to meet your specifications. With their commitment to customer satisfaction, you can count on their dedication to finding the best solution for your application and delivering it as promised.
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