CR Surfacing Laboratories, Australia’s longest running independent lens laboratory, has turned its own business on its head with the launch of the new Signature MD.
“Within six weeks of being on the market, the Signature MD is already making up 70 per cent of our progressive sales,” said Adam Fletcher, CR Surfacing Laboratories Managing Director. “Originally we had planned to launch the Signature MD in January 2014 but the response to the trials we ran was so positive that we brought its release forward to July.”
The Signature MD was two years in development. Software to produce the lens was developed in close collaboration between CR Surfacing Laboratories’ research and development team and their designers in Germany. During this time, 350 patients participated in wearer trials, which enabled CR Surfacing Laboratories time to refine both the software and the processes. Mr. Fletcher said the results were “truly staggering with the highest adaptation rate for both first time and previous multifocal wearers”. The lens is entirely produced in Australia at CR Surfacing Laboratories in Victoria.
Exclusive to Independents
The company now believes it can provide independent practices across Australia and New Zealand with “a technological advantage over the chain stores”. Mr Fletcher said, “The Signature MD sets a new standard globally and our technologies and processes are light years ahead of our multi-national competitors.”
… if a customer wants progressive glasses for the office and progressive sportswear with a wide wrap, you can now use the same lens design and achieve continuity…
The freeform Signature MD incorporates multi-directional calculations and proprietary raster surfacing technologies to aspherise the intermediate and near zones as well as distance.
“The Signature MD has double the number of points of reference as others on the market using muiti-directional calculations. Raster surfacing technologies in X, Y and Z co-ordinates eliminate peripheral distortion by up to 70 per cent – it’s the closest thing you can get to single vision in a progressive lens,” said Mr. Fletcher adding that many eye care practitioners have taken the Signature MD on as a base progressive lens and it is particularly effective for patients with a high astigmatism.
Mr. Fletcher said because the new lens is available in a wide range of indexes and materials (including Drivewear, Photofusion, Transitions, Polarised and Clear) eye care professionals can achieve continuity in lenses for patients across multiple glasses. “So if a customer wants progressive glasses for the office and progressive sportswear with a wide wrap, you can now use the same lens design and achieve continuity in the optical experience.”
