Brain Frez

Remember the first time you noticed that fine print in your favorite novel was starting to look a little fuzzy? Or maybe you were speeding down the interstate, looking for your exit, and realized you couldn’t read the signs from as far away as you used to be able to. Many people don’t keep 20/20 vision forever and have to get glasses or contacts to help them see.

Then there was the first visit to the eyedoctor. He made you sit in front of that machine (you were sure it looked like a torture instrument used by some evil dictator) and look into it. Suddenly, air puffed into your eyes, and you jerked back at the unpleasant feeling. What was this guy doing to you?

Then he’d sit you in front of another machine that shone a blindingly bright light into your eyes. Wait—hadn’t people always told you not to stare at bright lights? And here was an eye doctor, this expert on eyes and how to take the finest care of them, shining this beam straight into your eyes. He told you to look one way, then the other, checking out every part of your eyes to see if everything was in working order.

And don’t forget the eye charts. A random assortment of letters, progressively getting smaller the further down the page the lines were. You’d read the top few lines with ease, then begin squinting to make out letters as you looked lower and lower. Was that a B or a D?

Finally, just when you had given up all hope on impressing this guy in the white lab coat, he told you the words you’d been dreading. “You’re going to need to start wearing glasses.”

But once you got your pair of glasses, you put it on, and realized how clear the world actually looked. You could see the text on road signs clearly from a distance. You could see tiny branches protruding at the tops of trees!

So the optometrist assessed your eye problems, but then a lens manufacturer makes the lens to your prescription to fit in the glasses frame you chose. After the lens is ground, it must be completely clean and free from particles, so a thorough cleaning process is in order. Optical manufacturers such as Carl Zeiss Vision use custom wire baskets to hold lenses as they are dipped into special chemicals made to clean them to be spotless for sale to the customer.

Next time you look through a brand-new pair of glasses, you can thank the care of the process of precision optical manufacturing by companies such as this. But you can also thank another company—Three M Tool, which makes the stainless steel baskets used for cleaning these lenses.

Three M Tool customizes its baskets to the specific needs of clients, which include all kinds of manufacturing industries. They offer a variety of materials and finishes and mesh sizes for whatever purpose a company needs a basket for.