HOW ARE GLASSES MADE TODAY?

Talking about it is one thing.

Doing so is another thing entirely.

Sure, there’s plenty of brands in the UK that can tell you about making glasses frames. But, there are so few who really do it themselves.

A sobering prospect given that UK used it to manufacture 5 million flexible team a year.

For the only sunglasses frame manufacturer in Scotland, they felt the need to share with you how glasses frames are made.

Oh yeah, our glasses are handmade and they’re handmade right here in the UK.

From sheet to store, here’s a list of the processes we use to create our core stock and secret collections of spectacles and sunglasses.

Yes, we make limited editions which you can see by entering our Members Club in the form below.

HOW ARE GLASSES MADE STEP BY STEP?

ACETATE CUTTING

So, how are glasses made?

At Banton Frameworks, we believe the best place to start is with the best materials. This is why every quarter, they get a shipment of a best chloride by Europe’s biggest supplier.

Since the huge acetate sheets barely fit through our workshop doors, we cut them outside with our table saw during the summer months.

We still use our table saw in the winter, so there’s a lot of sweeping afterwards…

MANUFACTURING

Our frame designs are timeless and silent, but the process of creating them is noisy.

The deafening buzz of our in-house CNC machine can also be heard outside our workshop.

That frame faces were precision cut of strips of thick acetate pieces, so ear defenders are certainly on.

SHARPENING

Confidence and dedication are necessary qualities to cut the lens grooves in our frames.

This entails cutting a narrow channel in the inner periphery of the lens hole with a custom-built table and cutting tool. The frame cannot be fitted with lenses unless this groove is present.

INSTEAD OF BEING DULL

Continuity. Continuity. Continuity.

This particular technique necessitates the use of a handheld drill to carve four small recesses in the acetate frame front.

Such four openings are for small solid steel rivets that we use. The frame is ruined if the recess is too deep. If the bolts are also too shallow, they will protrude or catch on the cardigan.

EXCITING

Consider bridges. Consider spitfire aircraft.

Rivets keep even the most powerful systems together. Our glasses are no different.

Our five tenon hinge were permanently fastened to the frames and temples using a pneumatic riveting system from 1976.

This method is accurate, time-tested, and dependable. These hinges, like our mission, are fixed and strong.

CURVED

Curves are often appealing, particularly when placed correctly.

Before we curve our frame fronts with our self-built pneumatic press, we heat them in an oven. When your frame reaches the proper temperature, it is easily removed from the oven and put under our press. A pneumatic pump is mounted and descends to curve your frame with the aid of a precision machined mould below.

These curves make your frame more comfortable to wear and make it easier to fit lenses. Your frame is then submerged in cold water to maintain its form.

POLISHING IN TUMBLES

Smooth pebbles are popular on your local beach.

Natural abrasion between the sand and small stones causes the surface to become smoother over time. The same effect is obtained by tumbling our frames. However, there is no sand.

This technique is used to remove marks and scratches left over from the previous stage of machine cutting our frames. We placed our frames inside wide barrels filled with what is known as ‘tumbling media,’ which is fascinating to watch.

Simply put, the frames and media are tossed around inside the barrel by rotation, creating friction and polishing.

BLASTING IN THE MEDIA

Polishing wax gets into the lens grooves and crevices during the tumbling process.

It’s a required operation, but getting your frame clean again can take some time. When you listen to the new audio version and podcast, the frame is washed inside our blasting device and lovingly restored.

PAD PRINTING AND TEMPLE MACHINING

Our uni-piece temples are made of stainless steel and have a seamless, flowing shape. A ball-end, tapered towards each edge, serves as a counterweight to the frame front.

The steel is PVD coated in a strong colour finish and is made from a single component.

Since coating, their temples were professionally pads printed with our company details on the inside edge.

This technique produces very delicate, precise lettering on the inside of our uni-piece temples.

ASSEMBLING

Oh, this is the good stuff. Your frame is now full and ready for assembly.

Our riveted hinges are held together by small 1mm dowel screws that connect the frame front to the temples. We employ five tenon hinges, which produce a high-quality, stable hinge action.

When you unpack your new frame, you will savour the tactile feeling of opening and closing the hinges.

FIT OF LENSES

Lenses for sunglasses or spectacles may now be mounted.

The acetate is gently warmed with an optical frame heater to make it easier to fit the sun lenses into the lens grooves.

Depending on your prescription, lenses can be single vision, reading, bifocal, or varifocal. Tap here to see our lens bundles.

PACKAGING

Our opulent packaging carton is made of die-cut, high-gsm paper from a specialised mill in the North East of Scotland.

Text and logo are foil blocked in a matt silver finish both inside and out. To seal the contents inside, a custom black silicone band envelops the container’s exterior.

This band eliminates the need for adhesives while also allowing for a tactile unboxing experience.

Want to replace your old rimless glasses with new designer frames? Contact us today!