Optima was founded in 1984 and began as an importer and marketer of ophthalmic lenses. In early 2000, as the popularity of plastic lenses soared, the company set out to transform itself from importer to manufacturer. Its first mission was to perfect the optical qualities of polycarbonate. It was a material that had legendary impact resistance and appeared to be a perfect fit for the active lifestyles of today's lens wearers, if the company could just eliminate its one fatal flaw — material stress. That "stress" was known in the industry as birefringence.

From Importer to Lens Manufacturer on American Soil

While embarking on their mission, the company made a huge discovery. It was not the polycarbonate material itself which caused the optical flaws, it was the manufacturing process. With a team of scientists and a hunch, the company developed a new process, which they patented and named ECM-9™ (Extrusion Compression Molding). This new process eliminated the material stress that was caused by the injection compression processes used by all the other manufacturers in making their polycarbonate lenses. The result of Optima's revolutionary new process was a lens that had the optical qualities of glass but retained the lightness, thinness and superior impact resistance of polycarbonate. All without any of the "stress" found in the other polycarbonate lenses.

Setting Out to Prove the Superiority of Its Home "Grown" Polycarbonate Lens

To the naked eye, all polycarbonate lenses looked the same, but Optima had a "secret weapon". A simple demonstration was all that was needed to separate RESOLUTION® from the other polycarbonate lenses. By simply placing both lenses under polarizers (Figure 1), the material stress in the other polycarbonate lenses was very apparent. An independent optical lab concluded that these visual flaws correlated directly to optical defects.

CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" Feature Highlights the Brawn and Ingenuity Behind the American Made Lenses

Soon, the company was not only selling its lenses in the US but shipping them around the world, including China. The ability to manufacture lenses in the US and export the lenses overseas, when other manufacturing had experienced an exodus, was taken note of by CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight." The company and plant were featured on their news broadcast. It was an example of how American ingenuity and brawn could help stem the tide of job losses in this country.

Optima is proud that its entire line of RESOLUTION® lenses, including RESOLUTION® RESPONSE® progressive and new RESOLUTION® COLOR FREE AR — The Invisible Lens™, are all made in the USA.