What is a photochromic lens?
Photochromic lenses are lenses that become dark when exposed to a particular wavelength of light (usually ultraviolet light), but return to their original transmittance and become clear when no longer illuminated by the light source. Photochromic lenses can be made of glass or resin. The discoloration effect is caused by silver chloride or other halides added to the lens, which are transparent to visible light when not irradiated by ultraviolet light. When irradiated by ultraviolet light, chemical reactions will occur, which will absorb part of the visible light and make the lens show dark. The chemical reaction is reversible, so the lens returns to its original transparent state when it is no longer exposed to UV light.
The discoloration principle of photochromic lenses
The fine grains of silver halide and copper oxide were melted into the glass melt of the lens blank material to produce the lens. When the lens is in the ultraviolet environment, the silver halide molecules will undergo a chemical reaction due to the ultraviolet radiation and decompose into silver ion particles and halogens. Because the silver particles are dark and absorb visible light, the lens gets darker. When the ultraviolet light is weakened or isolated, silver ions and halogens are recombined under the action of catalyst copper oxide to form silver halide, so the color of the lens gradually becomes lighter and transparent again. The discoloration mechanism of the resin lens is similar to that of the glass lens.
There are three processes for resin-changing lenses.
The incorporation method, known as bulk polymerization, is similar to the method of glass lens, that is, one or more photochromic dyes are directly incorporated into the polymer monomer of the substrate for bulk polymerization, and the lens formed after curing will change color. Discoloration dye is completely integrated into the resin lens substrate, so the lens made of color persistence is very good.
The uniformity of discoloration and the depth of color after discoloration are highly related to the thickness of the lens. Because the thickness of the lenses at all levels is different, there will be a color difference between the depth of discoloration and the uniformity, and the uneven phenomenon of high brightness is more obvious.
The film type is known as the coating method. It is the chromatic resin lens by coating or dipping in a layer of chromatic dye on the base of the resin lens. Because the coating covers the surface of the lens, the color uniformity is good. The coating, which is only about 0.05mm thick, does not provide enough molecules to make the lens dark enough, so the color is relatively less dark, and the discoloration lasts slightly longer.
Infiltration, known as the penetration method, is to use the principle of penetration, through the thermal diffusion method to make the color dye permeate the surface of the resin lens sheet material, with diffusion depth up to 0.15~0.20mm. The lens has a constant color change characteristic. There will be no inconsistency between the center and the surrounding color as the luminosity gets darker. The color-changing resin lens made by infiltration type has the benefits of uniform color-changing, small color difference, fast and thorough color-fading, which is the mainstream of color-changing technology at present.
Sales points of note for color changing lens
The discoloration rate of the lens is related to the intensity of ultraviolet light. The stronger the ultraviolet light is, the faster the discoloration rate will be, while the vice versa. The degree of discoloration is related to the ambient temperature. The higher the temperature is, the color of the lens is slightly lighter. Otherwise, the color is slightly darker. With the progress of manufacturing technology, the discoloration rate, especially the fading rate of the discoloration lens has been greatly improved, and the interference of temperature on the color depth is becoming less and less. Either glass or resin lenses react only with ultraviolet light, not visible light, so in some environments, they do not darken.
