HOW IT WORKS - Contact Lenses

[Music] but first Contact Lenses manufacturers started commercially producing them in the 1970s up until then if you were short or long-sighted your choice was pretty much the shape and color of your frames now for many it's a choice of hard or soft lenses but what's the difference hard lenses are rigid and are designed to fit an individual eye perfectly so to begin with the patient's eyes are measured with the carat graph although eyes might appear to be perfectly smooth on a microscopic level they have an irregular surface in fact your retina and Iris is as unique as your fingerprints hard lenses start out as these sticks of plastic they're loaded into a grinding machine and the patient's eye data is fed into the computer that controls controls it first the diamond grinder Mills out the lens's [Music] diameter then the inside is shaped to fit the patient unique pattern given the delicate nature of the eye this is essential when it's been shaped the lens is cut off the rod at this stage the lens would fit on the eye but the wearer wouldn't be able to see [Music] anything as this manufacturer makes lenses for hundreds of people at a time they have to make sure the lenses are kept in the right order so they don't get mixed [Music] up the lens is glued to a stud so it can be mounted onto the grinding [Music] machine this computer has the patient's eye prescription stored it controls the Diamond Drill which passes over the outside of the lens twice once to achieve the right thickness and again for the exact curvature and there it is the tiny item that makes the difference between blurred vision and a clear view an alternative to hard lenses are soft ones that adapt themselves to the eye they're cheaper and more convenient for some users as their disposable they start out as a plastic liquid a blue Dy is added which helps users find the lenses when they drop them the mix is poured into plastic molds a cover is put on top and it's baked at 97° CSUS for 10 minutes each lens needs to be checked for scratches and cracks at this stage they're rigid so each one is placed in a saline solution where they have absorb the liquid making them soft once sterilized with a further blast of heat they're ready and for those who want their eye color to match their handbag the soft lenses come in a variety of tints they're held in a brace and then dipped in dye so instead of just choosing the color of your frames you can now choose the color of your eyes [Music] too

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 1,300,472

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, BBC documentary, Contact Lens (Product Category), How it Works, How It's Made (TV Program), How it Works Contact lenses, How its made contact lenses, Cool Stuff: How It Works (TV Program), Lens (Invention), Eye

Id: vnhoDRlItoA

Length: 4min 50sec (290 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 09 2014