2023 A Full Guide Metal Eyewear :Definition of Metal Eyewear ,Metal Eyewear Advantages, Manufacturing Process(Keep Updating)

Metal eyewear, which is the most popular eyeglass type, is perfect for a classic look. The common materials to make metal frames are titanium, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, and alloy. The production of metal frames starts from shaping the components made from these materials. The finish and processes decide how the final product looks, which could be very different.

Metallic glasses are one of the most popular types of glasses of all time and are the perfect choice for a classic look. Business glasses, precious metal glasses, outdoor sports style night vision goggles for drivers tend to be made of metal. Common materials for metal frames are titanium, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, and alloys. The production of metal frames begins with shaping components made from these materials. The finished product and the process determine the appearance of the final product and can vary considerably. When choosing a metal glasses production factory or supplier, it is necessary to carry out in-depth consultation on its processing process and technology. EYEWEARGLOBO custom all kinds of metal glasses, custom high-end metal glasses, high-end titanium glasses, titanium sunglasses, titanium + glasses. Our experienced metal glasses manufacturing engineers ensure that only the material to the finished product every link. Quality is a prerequisite we will never compromise on.

Advantages of Metal Eyewear

Metal frames are extremely popular because they provide unique benefits, although not all metal frames are alike.

1) Titanium is strong, durable, corrosion-resistant metal, ideal for thin frames. It’s 40% lighter than other metals, which can eliminate headaches that come from wearing heavier frames. It can feel like you’re not even wearing glasses at all. Titanium is also hypoallergenic, eliminating negative reactions on the sides of your head and the bridge of your nose. The malleability of titanium means that frames, if bent, will revert to their original shape. This is why frames made of metals like titanium are popular among athletes who tend to drop their eyewear. Although titanium is a silver-gray metal, frames come in a variety of colors.

2) Beta titanium is an alloy of titanium that includes aluminum. This makes them cheaper than 100% titanium frames and also more flexible.

3) Memory metal (Flexon) is a titanium alloy composed of 50% titanium and 50% nickel. They’re extremely flexible and, if bent, will return to their original shape. Durability make them a great option for children. They’re cheaper than 100% titanium frames, but also less hypoallergenic. Reactions caused by such frames are most likely the result of nickel.

4) Beryllium is a lower-cost alternative to titanium that’s also corrosion-resistant, making it a great choice for people who spend a lot of time in an around salt water. It’s also light-weight, flexible and strong. However, it’s not as hypoallergenic as titanium.

5) Stainless steel is an iron-carbon alloy containing chromium. Like titanium, they’re lightweight, flexible, strong and corrosion-resistant. Stainless steel is also hypoallergenic.

6) Monel is an inexpensive alloy of nickel and copper that’s also extremely malleable and also corrosion-resistant.

This article will provide a detailed overview of the production process for metal eyeglasses, as well as tips on how to improve their quality.

Components Process

Metal frames mainly consist of rings, temples, bridges, arm pads, and hinges. The first step to manufacturing metal eyeglasses is making these metal components individually. There are 4 steps to get the components ready for the next processes: shaping, grinding, cutting, and bending.

Components Shaping

All the metal rings are formed by sophisticated CNC machines to ensure size accuracy. As per the other metal parts, we can either do it manually or use oil press machines with mold. These 2 methods are used for different circumstances due to their own advantages and disadvantages.

Oil press with mold excels with accuracy and efficiency while the mold cost needs to be considered. One set of bridge mold could cost 100 US dollars and the temple molds are 6 times as much. That is 700 US dollars in total, which means 2 dollars per set for the mold if the order quantity is 350 pcs. So if the size accuracy could be slightly comprised, manual work is a more flexible solution for small orders. Although it won’t bring us the exact same quality as the molds do, it still could be good enough under the process of experienced craftsmen. However, if the order quantity is above 1,000 pcs per model, oil press with mold is the way to go. Because the labor cost of manual work will increase dramatically with the working time.

Besides the order quantity, the structure complexity of the components is another factor to decide the necessity of making the molds. Simple components could be done either way with no big difference. In the actual order process, the true value of the manufacturer is the capability to analyse the structure of the components combined with the order quantity, and then suggest the overall solution for the buyer.

Components Triming

When the components are just formed, there will be sharp edges and burrs. So we need to polish them at this stage before they were soldered together. Also, component shaping doesn’t mean the size is the final size we need. Instead, we make them slightly longer or bigger so that we can adjust them later, which is by precisely cutting into the required sizes.

Bending

Metal eyeglasses are curved due to the curves of the metal parts. The final step of the components process is bending. The rings are bent according to the base curve of the lens while the bendings of other components are for the eyewear fitting and design.

Soldering and Assembling

Connecting all the metal parts is the next job to do. Metal parts like rims, bridges, end pieces, and arm pads should be soldered together. The front and temples are connected with screws.

Two soldering methods

With all the metal components ready, we can start assembling them together by soldering. To achieve the best effect, we begin to use laser soldering, which is widely used in the electronic industry. The greater process control only heats up the necessary areas and does not increase pressure on the plate surface. Therefore, laser soldering is very clean and leaves almost no traces on the connecting spot.

However, the traditional soldering can not be replaced completely because laser soldering only works for parts with exact same material. For example, if we are soldering steel arm pads to titanium rings, the traditional method is the only solution.

No matter which soldering method is applied, the next step is ultrasonic cleaning to remove impurities attached. And handcraft should be followed for cleaning the soldering traces.

Front and temple assembling

The front and temples should also be assembled after the soldering process. Then we will get the frames with only temple tips and nose pads left. This structure is necessary for the following polishing and coloring processes.

Polishing

Polishing is so important for the quality of the metal eyewear. Both tumbling polish and hand polish are needed and the quality should be inspected right after them. Otherwise, the coloring processes will be affected causing irreversible results.

Tumbling Polish

The polishing begins by tumbling the metal frames in barrels filled with small stones. These stones are especially created for polishing metals and come in different sizes. The worker responsible for tumbling polish must frequently monitor the progress and replace the polishing stones as needed.

There are three different stages in order to have the best possible polish. The amount of time and the type of stones vary depending on what effect we are trying to achieve in each stage.

The first stage is rough tumbling, which refines the cutting edges with big polishing stones. Good effects are typically seen after 12 hours.
The tiny holes on the surfaces can not be reached in the first stage. As a result, we have to resort to the second stage of middle tumbling. At this point, we switch over to medium-sized stones that can cover areas that big stones cannot reach. 36 hours can be enough time to spend on middle tumbling.
The final stage is ‘shiny tumbling.’ As the name suggests, its main goal is to make the frames shiny. We use smallest stones for this stage and recommend allocating 24 hours total.

It is crucial that the tumbling time for each stage is followed strictly. We managed this by hanging a notebook on each barrel with the processing model number and starting time. This way, coupled with the timer of each tumbling barrel, we could be sure that every eyewear model went through the entire process.

Hand polishing

If tumbling polishing is for the entirety of the frames, hand polishing focuses on smaller, more delicate areas. The workers use grinding wheels in tandem with their eyesight and manual dexterity to do this. The effect is better but it takes a longer time. On average, one worker can hand polish 240 sets of eyewear per day while one tumbling barrel can fit up to 450 sets of eyewear. Therefore, the combination of tumbling polish and hand polishing yields the best results in terms of efficiency and outcome.

Polish Inspection

The quality of the polishing process could massively affect the coloring process. Any tiny uneven surfaces become obvious on colored frames, making the products urgly. And the colors won’t last long there. Besides, it can not be re-polished unless we remove the colors of the entire frame.

Therefore, it’s necessary to have an inspection of the polish quality before the frames were sent for coloring. And given the great importance, it has to be performed strictly.

Coloring

The colors of metal frames are added by plating and spray painting. Plated colors are much more firm but with very limited colors. On the other hand, spray painting provides almost all of the color options. Based on their own advantages and disadvantages, they were used for different purposes in the coloring process.

Plating the Base Color

The first step to color the metal frames is plating the base colors. We got only 3 optional base colors, which are the original metal colors of gold, silver, and gun. The purpose of the base colors is to make the final frame shiny with metallic luster.

Final Coloring

In most cases, those light base colors are not enough. So we could expand the options by plate required colors. In this step, we can use different types of metal colors, like rose gold or roman silver. Besides, we can also use different types of black, brown, and blue.

However, if the required colors are beyond that range, we have to go with spray painting. Although it doesn’t last as long as electric plating, we can hardly leave it. The unlimited color options make it the ideal coloring method for colorful collections like kids lines. Plus, spray painting is the only way to do the two-tone color design which, by the way, takes around 12 days.

Color Inspection

An inspection needs to be performed right after coloring. And as mentioned above, areas that haven’t been polished enough will be magnified after coloring. So this inspection is not only for the color effect, but also for the polish details. Unqualified frames would be picked out and sent for color removing. Then it has to go through the hand polish and coloring processes again.

Assembling

Here we assemble the non-metal parts like temple tips, nose pads, and lens. Then silk print and pack for the inspection.

Assemble the temple tips and nose pads

It’s not that comfortable with metal materials contacting the skin. So we use silicone nose pads and the materials of temple tips could be acetate or plastic. Nose pads could easily be assembled by screws, while the temple tip assembling may need the help of the glue to make it durable. And among the glue options, AB glue lasts much longer than the instant glues.

Nylon wire insertion

Half rim frame is one of the common types of metal frames. Unlike other types, it needs nylon wire to support the lens on the rimless half. So before mounting the lens, we need to insert nylon wire to each rim.

Lens Cutting

This step is where white lens for optical frames or sunglasses lens are cut. The raw lenses come from suppliers in a round shape with the required base curve. White lens are universal while the sunglasses lens differ quite a bit. Many buyers prefer to nominate their trusted suppliers for the sunglasses lens.

Silk Print

The optical white lens provides enough room for your brand name on the outer side, while the inner side of the left temple (or right temple) is an ideal location to do silk print of the frame sizes. Alternatively, small logos can be printed on the temples if that’s what you prefer.

Lens mounting

Attaching a lens to a frame can be difficult if you don’t have the proper instruction. Some frames might even require special mounting techniques. To avoid damage to both the lens and frame, the workers need always adhere to the engineer’s directions.

Adjustment

The eyewear adjustment can only be properly done by following the engineer’s drawing of an actual scale. Each endpoint of the open frame has to coincide with where it is drawn on the paper.

Quality Control – Factory Side

Now that the production process is complete, it’s time to see if the outputs meet the required standards. A wise manufacturer would attach great importance to the final product inspection because discovering any defects or issues before they reach the buyer’s warehouse or even go on sale prevents further problems down the line. Any unqualified frame goes back to the production line for rework. And if it can’t even be qualified for rework, it will be trashed.

Cleaning & Packaging

The qualified products will go through an ultrasonic cleaning process in order to remove any fingerprints or oil stains. Then packaging workers would wear white gloves, and start the packaging procedures as below:

Open the frame and put on sleeve for the front;
Put on the sleeve for the left temple (or right temple) and then close the left temple (or right temple);
Close the right temple (or the left temple), which doesn’t require the sleeve.
Pack the closed frame inside the a poly bag and then put the bag inside the boxes.

Note: nowadays, more and more buyers prefer to use eco-friendly materials for the sleeves and the poly.

Conclusion

Depending on the design, it takes approximately 38-48 days for a metal eyewear order. However, if special designs like two-tone colors are required, it might take as long as 55-60 days.

Besides these standard processes, the more precious thing we gained is the experience and knowledge after dealing with thousands of eyewear models including their unique structure, material nature, troubleshootings. Because eyewear production is rather a handicraft industry. We will keep sharing basic and deep knowledge for acetate eyewear things from different angles.

Eyewearglobo is one of the eyewear industry’s principal custom eyewear players in the design, manufacturing and distribution of eyeglasses including optical frames and sunglasses. OEM/ODM glasses manufacturing, eyewear private customization, and eyeglasses stock are the 3 main businesses of the company.

– Eyewear OEM/ODM manufacturing: Eyewearglobo eyewear manufacturer works closely with brands’ creative designers to ensure that the product design and characteristics are in perfect sync with the positioning and the DNA of each brand.
– Eyewear Private customization: beside bulk production, Eyewearglobo private brand department also offer individual clients the possibility of creating tailored eyewear with our exclusive customization processes.
– Eyewear Stock: Ready-to-Delivery eyewear stocks is covering 10000+ modles from dozens series. We keep removing slow modles ,and adding new styes each week or month. You can work easily with us with a steady stocks all the time.
Extended research, stylistic innovation combined with exceptional quality criteria, operational and manufacturing efficiency for the customer’s increasingly comprehensive demands, are the guidelines that help Eyewearglobo thrive. With our engineering practice, we strive to be the craftsman bringing valued eyewear ideas into real world life.

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