OHL News, July 1987
"Closing the Gap between Clinical Requirements and Manufacturing Capabilities" was the theme of our highly successful UK and USA seminars.
The first of the Seminars was held in London, England. A series of papers were presented during the morning’s programme at the Excelsior Hotel, Heathrow. A tour of OHL’s facilities in High Wycombe took place in the afternoon. A varied industry audience attended: delegates included contact and intraocular lens manufacturers, optometrists and members of the press.
The seminar started with Trevor Holmes, our General Manager introducing the Company and explaining Who WE Are, What WE Do and Are Trying To Do and Why WE Feel WE Are Different From The Rest.
Trevor Holmes briefly outlined how the Company has evolved over the last couple of years from, primarily, a research and development Company into a manufacturing organisation and the increase in manpower resources which has accompanied this. He stated OHL’s commitment to high technology lens generating systems and our plans to build on, and improve, our position in the marketplace.
Ian Handricks talked about the Lenscad Product - the Computer Aided Design package with applications for contact lens and IOL design. A practical demonstration, where the peripheral curves on an existing lens design were altered, highlighted how easy the product is to use and its benefits in the design of lenses.
Duncan Ashby from the Optometric Research Group gave the first of the clinical papers. This paper described a comparative study, undertaken at his practice in Reading, between various polished lenses and some CLS unpolished lenses.
Dr Alan Touch, President of Ocular Technologies Inc. travelled from North Carolina, USA, to present a paper at the Heathrow seminar. Dr Touch talked about recent advances in gas permeable contact lens materials and unveiled some innovations Ocular Technologies Inc. has made in this area.
”Evaluation of the Visual Performance and In vivo Wetting Characteristics of Contact Lenses" was the subject for the second clinical paper. Dr Michel Guillon of the Vision Research Centre Ltd, London gave this paper which detailed results of research assessing the performance of contact lens using low contrast tests and tear film evaluation techniques.
The morning’s programme was completed by Michael Dent, Managing Director of OHL, giving a review of the current range of Polytech equipment, our technical capabilities and a reaffirmation of our commitment to customer support and continued research and development programme.
The tour of Optical Holdings Ltd’s facility in High Wycombe included: A trip around the Lens Production department where delegates viewed the full process of making a contact lens using the Polytech System. This included: blocking; roughing a front and back surface; loading a lens design into the computer; cutting a front and back surface; overview of polishing and cleaning, and an overview of inspection and packaging.
A further demonstration of the Lenscad product, with the opportunity for delegates to experience and test the product themselves was given. An in depth review of the Polytech Blocking System, the Polytech 90 Air Service Centre followed by a demonstration of inspection techniques.
The latter demonstration reviewed some of the optical inspection techniques used by OHL in research, manufacture and development. This demonstration featured: stress analysis using the Polytech 10, diamond tool and diamond tool edge inspection, lens profile analysis and a discussion linking lens analysis with CAD and manufacturing.
Lathe Set-Up and Diagnostics and Precision and Lathe Principles were the final demonstrations of the day. The former used a Polytech 50, set-up and diagnostic routines to show a Polytech 2000 lathe calibration set to R=0 and a repeatability test on the axis. The use of analysis vibration equipment, probes to verify axis repeatability and a tachometer to set spindle speed were viewed by delegates during the Precision and Lathe Principles demonstration.
The Seminar at Bentec Engineering, the USA Polytech distributor, took place at their premises in Sacramento, California, on 11th May. Briant and Rose Benson hosted this seminar.
Papers on diamond tools and the Polytech range of equipment were presented by Michael Dent in the mornings programme. The afternoon was devoted to a Workshop with delegates receiving practical ”hands-on" experience on the Polytech System.
Delegates travelled from all over the USA to attend this Seminar, coming from places such as Hawaii, Oregon, Los Angeles and San ]ose. June 3rd, 4th and 5th were the dates of the Seminar held in OHL's Atlanta office.
This series of demonstrations was run on an informal basis with contact lens manufacturers receiving individual demonstrations on the products which make up the Polytech System. This seminar attracted several companies from the East Coast of the USA.
The Atlanta seminar featured a promotion where the winner received a Polytech 10 polariscope which is used to identify stress in contact lens blanks. Pictured above, receiving a Polytech 10 from Linda Brown of OHL is Ideal Optics Inc of Atlanta.