Scratch-Resistant Lenses
Manufactured and marketed by Bausch & Lomb, Inc., Rochester,
New York, the Ray-Ban® Survivors® Collection sunglasses
feature a technological advance that makes them 10 times more
scratch-resistant than conventional glass lenses.
Ray-Ban Survivors Collection sunglasses feature a coating
that offers 10 times the scratch-resistance of conventional glass
lenses.
The DiamondHard® technology involves coating the lenses
with a film of diamond-like carbon (DLC) that not only provides
scratch-protection but additionally reduces surface friction,
so that the lenses shed water more easily to reduce spotting.
The film coatings are supplied by Diamonex Optical Products Group,
Allentown, Pennsylvania, which employs a modified version of
a dual ion beam bonding process originally developed by Lewis
Research Center.
The hardest substance known, diamond offers a wide range of
potential applications but the potential was slow to develop
because of the high cost. Interested in the possibilities of
synthetic diamond coatings for aerospace systems, Lewis Research
Center sought to get the advantages of diamond without the cost
penalty by depositing a thin film of DLC on an inexpensive substrate
(supporting material). Lewis conducted extensive research on
the properties of DLC and ways to deposit the film on different
types of substrates.
Among the coating methods developed was a technique known
as direct ion deposition, in which an ion generator creates a
stream of ions from a hydrocarbon gas source; the carbon ions
impinge directly on the target substrate and "grow"
into a thin DLC film.
 Lewis
patented the technology and subsequently licensed it to Air Products
and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, Pennsylvania, which was exploring
aerospace applications of diamond coatings. An Air Products spinoff
company-Diamonex-used the NASA technology along with its own
proprietary technology in developing both polycrystalline diamond
and DLC coatings for commercial optical products.
®Ray-Ban, Survivors and DiamondHard are
registered trademarks of Bausch & Lomb, Inc.
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