Polycarbonate lenses are replacing organic (plastic) or traditional mineral lenses in many optical devices because they are impact-resistant, lightweight, and comfortable.
A little history:
Polycarbonate is a material dating back to the 1950s. It was designed for American aviation because it offered high impact resistance and great optical quality. Around 1970, polycarbonate was used by NASA for manufacturing astronaut helmet visors and for the windshields of airplanes and space shuttles. Its optical qualities and performance led to its use in optics and eyewear in the 1980s, not only for manufacturing lenses but also for frames.
Advantages of polycarbonate glasses:
Polycarbonate lenses are manufactured by injection; the polymer is heated and then injected into molds until cooled. This material is increasingly used because it offers many advantages:
- High impact resistance: polycarbonate lenses are up to 10 times more impact-resistant than organic and mineral glass lenses. It is particularly suitable for safety glasses, sports glasses, children's glasses... polycarbonate glasses are almost unbreakable.
- Significant lightness: these lenses are very comfortable because they are very light. For the same correction, organic or mineral lenses are heavier and thicker.
- UV protection: due to their chemical design, polycarbonate lenses protect wearers' eyes 100% from UV rays.
- Good optical quality: polycarbonate glasses provide high optical quality without distortion for the wearer and a comfortable field of vision for transparent glasses.
Disadvantages of polycarbonate glasses:
Polycarbonate has only one drawback: it is a "soft" material with low abrasion resistance; this is why it benefits from a treatment to harden the surface of the lenses. This does not make it "scratch-proof" but more scratch-resistant; it becomes as hard as organic glass.
Varionet offers safety glasses or blue light filtering computer glasses with polycarbonate lenses at low prices. Indeed, all our degressive and reading lenses are made of polycarbonate!
