Essilor’s green deal

Traditional ophthalmic lens surfacing has for a long time relied on the use of alloy for the blocking process. While alloy has its benefits (thermo stability, compatibility with AR coats and the ability to block prism), its use in blocking comes at an environmental cost.

Lead, cadmium and indium are all toxic elements within alloy and bring challenges of water cleaning and filtering, alloy disposal and staff wellbeing. Alternatives to alloy blocking have been tried – a wax coating was developed in the 1980s but it contaminated other parts of the production process and couldn’t match of the torque of modern machinery.