Product: Satisloh Film Lamination AR Coating System
Top Line: The company’s innovative film lamination process overcomes the challenges of adding in-house coating: needed space; large investment; and highly skilled staff. With a plethora of benefits, the new technology changes the way labs approach hard and AR coating.
Close Up: Film lamination technology is an alternative to conventional hard and AR coating. It is 10 times faster, has significantly lower investment costs, and a footprint of only 54 square feet.
"We asked ourselves how we could make it easier for labs to add coating to their production. And film lamination was the answer. It’s a truly groundbreaking, unprecedented technology, enabling virtually any size lab to keep the entire value chain in-house,” said Andy Huthoefer, vice president product management & marketing. “We’re very excited to see this technology revolutionizing coating as we know it.”
This new technology produces coated lenses in just 15 minutes per pair, much faster than conventional coating. Satisloh Tech-Film AR, a pre-fabricated, all-in-one, multi-layer film that replaces several coating consumables by combining multiple coatings and a bonding adhesive, laminates in a few easy steps. The process starts after surfacing when the Satisloh Hydra-Film cleans the lenses for perfectly clean surfaces, which are then plasma treated in the tabletop Plasma Etch for excellent Tech-Film adhesion. The actual lamination is a two-step process in the Satisloh Film-Pod:
1. Thermoforming Tech-Film to the shape of the lens back curve.
2. Permanently bonding the film to the lens.
"Laminated lenses aren't just coated, they can be ground up to 40 percent thinner for better cosmetics, which the end consumer will love. And they're 18 times more impact resistant than traditionally coated lenses compared to FDA standard requirements," said Huthoefer. "And we've eliminated optical imperfections like Newton Rings which occur with non-index matched hard coatings."
Vital Stats:
● Low cost of entry: The initial investment is a third of the cost of conventional coating lines as there is no need for an AR coater, hard coater or cleanroom.
● Simple process: The complete equipment is extremely easy to operate and requires only minimal operator training. 
● Ultra-short processing times: Lamination takes only 15 minutes/pair compared to hours for conventional coating.  
● Premium results: The laminated lens is a premium product, with consistently high coating quality and extraordinary features: thinner, lighter, higher impact resistance, and better aesthetics due to elimination of interference fringes and the exact same residual reflection color every time.
● Sustainability:  Film Lamination does not use any hazardous materials in the labs (e.g. hard coating lacquers). Energy and water consumption are also lower than with conventional coating.
● Compact size: Typical coating operations require a minimum of 450 sq. ft for both processing and utilities. Film lamination is extremely compact using 54 sq. ft., making it a realistic option for most labs.
www.satisloh.com/film-lamination