This winter season has been an exciting one in the Anti-Reflective Coating Lab already. No, we aren't having wild parties, or putting up a tree, or even decorating or anything connected with the holidays. We aren't doing anything crazy. (Well, some of us did enjoy participating in the employees’ Secret Santa adventure.) However, we DO have visitors spending time with us (and no, it's not Santa's elves!). Our visitors are pretty special. These specialists from Essilor have been with us since December 2 and will be with us for a while longer. The exciting part is that this isn't just routine maintenance, but it is the installation of new production abilities! Once they have completed their tasks, Cherry Optical will be able to produce the newest Crizal technology product, Sapphire^® 360° UV! As Essilor states on their website "New, Best-In-Class Transparency with Multi-Angular Technology, new Crizal Sapphire^® 360° UV lenses reduce reflections from all directions for less distracting glare, better aesthetics, enhanced UV protection, and safer nighttime driving." This installation meant some vast but temporary changes in how we did things in our lab. Because the Essilor gentlemen needed to be working with our vacuum chamber (Buhler/Leybold Boxer) during the day, our 24-hour lab was only in production mode for a portion of our usual hours. Kudos to all the AR lab employees for stepping up, changing hours, taking on extra shifts and doing all they could to help us move all our usual production through in a much shorter time period than we usually have available to us. I have to say, it made things a bit hectic and crazy, but we all knew it was temporary, and part of the impressive growth at Cherry Optical, Inc. So, not only will we be producing Crizal Avance™, Crizal Alize™, Crizal Easy™ and Crizal Prevencia^® coatings, but now also the Crizal Sapphire^® 360° UV coating! Talk about being cutting edge in the industry and keeping up with the newest offerings in technological advancements! Our customers will be thrilled with these unique advantages, and we hope to serve them well as we continue to produce excellent anti-reflective coatings for our lenses! As an AR Lab technician, I look forward to seeing the new products starting to come out of our lab and am excited to see the differences. I find it utterly amazing to think of all that our lenses do for people. As a consumer myself, I look forward to dreaming of a new pair of glasses with this coating to enhance my vision in a wide variety of conditions! I also look forward to what else may come in the future, as we see more technological advances that enhance vision and accommodate visual challenges. Learn more about our AR Facility and take a quick tour here!