US OPTICAL, LLC

LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012

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INTRODUCTION LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012

Repeat Performance FOR THREE well-educated individuals, graduates from Syracuse University (Go Big Orange!), and all with business successes outside of the optical industry, the Cotran brothers, Ralph, Ronald, and Robert, seemed to show poor business judgment when they bought an almost failed business, Onondaga Optical, in 1986. The equipment at the lab in East Syracuse, NY, was outdated and not well maintained and the core business was down to 80 jobs a day. They changed the name to Optogenics and subsequently built one of the larger, more successful, uncut businesses competing with the best that New York and Florida had to offer. By the time the Cotran brothers sold Optogenics to Essilor of America, Inc. in 1999, the lab was shipping over 1,500 jobs a day. Not bad for an economist and a couple of engineers. They stayed on at Optogenics (working for Essilor) until 2007 when they decided to re-enter the optical industry as owners once again. The Cotran brothers opened US Optical, LLC on March 3, 2008 and this time it only took them four years to grow an entirely different business model to 1,500 jobs a day. The ophthalmic wholesale laboratory business is contracting, and yet the brothers have bucked the trend. They have validated the classic entrepreneurial enterprise model by taking risks and using good ideas with excellent execution to build a successful business. Ralph, Ronald, and Robert are even expanding the lab by another 7,500 sq. ft. because demand is so high for their products. And they are adding a fourth free-form line and opening a new Crizal® Center in March 2013. Rather than copy their previous uncut model, they studied the industry and opened a highly automated, multi-axis, totallyoptical.com

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free-form laboratory featuring MEI System multi-axis machinery for finishing, plus in-house anti-reflective (AR) treatments. Now “old” edging and surfacing technology is only used for special jobs with CNC (Computer Numeric Control) equipment for even spheres, cylinders, and regular shapes.

The Cotrans maintained an aggressive direct mail plan they had previously used but also added dedicated marketing representatives in targeted geographical areas. They have turned their dedication to value pricing, high quality, and being the “Fastest Lab in America™” with 24-hour turnaround on all free-form—

even with AR! Doing it all over again can be a good business model and more than enough to justify our recognition of US Optical as Lab Innovator of 2012. Jim Grootegoed is Professional Editor of Optical Lab Products. november 2012    A3

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LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012 HISTORY

A Brotherly Bond The three Cotran brothers have been in business together for the past 26 years. US Optical is their second lab and demand for free-form is so high that they’re extending their premises in upstate New York. BY CAROL GILHAWLEY

THE COTRAN brothers have had interesting careers. Born to a United Nations diplomat father and an Italian mother, they spent their childhood overseas in countries like Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Somalia, Laos, Japan, and the Middle East. As a result, they are multilingual. Ralph is the oldest, Ronald is two years younger, and Robert is three years younger than Ron. Two of the brothers, Ron, an industrial engineer and vice president, and Robert, president, who has a civil engineering degree with an MBA, began in the laboratory business in 1986. Prior to buying a lab, Robert had been working for Caesar’s World in international marketing and Ron had been with Carrier Air Conditioning internationally. They bought a nearly bankrupt lab, Onondaga Optical, in 1986. They saw the lab on Tuesday and bought it on Thursday. “Our dad wanted us to have our own family business,” Ron said. “Unfortunately he died of lung cancer six months after we bought it.” CHANGED THE NAME Onondaga was doing about 80 prescriptions a day. “All their equipment was broken and we bought it knowing nothing of the optical industry,” Ron said. They changed the name to Optogenics, after a racehorse. Robert enjoys horse racing and over the years has owned several horses. In 1999, when Optogenics was doing about 1,500 jobs a day, they sold the lab to Essilor of America, A4    november 2012

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Inc. “They offered us a good opportunity and I would say that the timing was right,” said Ralph. “We saw Essilor as the best partner because we didn’t have the Varilux® brand. And Varilux was king. So, it got us into Varilux and into some new technologies they were developing.” Even though Essilor bought Optogenics, the Cotrans still ran the lab. They were totally autonomous for eight years and reported directly to Essilor’s CEO. “We were the only lab that reported to the CEO. They kept us

separate because of the way we were doing things and our own unique business model. They were testing some special projects at our lab, so they wanted us to be separate,” Ralph explained. US OPTICAL WAS BORN Ralph always owned a piece of

Clockwise from top: Ralph Cotran with their mother Lola Cotran before the lab opened. Robert Cotran oversees construction of US Optical before its launch in March 2008. Ron Cotran stands in front of their first free-form line. The lab is now adding its fourth free-form line. Robert, Ron, and Ralph Cotran after the floor had been put in US Optical, their new lab, in 2008.

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HOYA congratulates US Optical for being named

Lab Innovator of 2012

is now Available In-House at US Optical.

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LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012 HISTORY

Optogenics even though he did not actively work in it until his brothers brought him back east. He has an undergraduate degree in economics and an MBA in finance and marketing from Syracuse University. For years he had a job in Los Angeles working in the international insurance brokerage business running an international division on the west coast. He joined Optogenics in 1998. The three Cotrans worked for Essilor until 2007. Then, they attended Satisloh of America’s SLUGfest where they saw free-form in action and decided it was time to set up their own free-form lab. They bought a building, gutted it, and renovated it. Together, they opened US Optical LLC, one of the first free-form labs in the country, in East Syracuse, NY, on March 3, 2008. On day one, they had one free-form line, one edger, four employees, and they did four jobs. They thought they would eventually produce 500 eyeglasses a day. From March 1, 2008 to 2009 their business grew by 150%; from 2009 to 2010, by 50%; from 2010 to 2011, by 40%; and from 2011 to 2012, by 25%. Now they do about 1,500 pairs a day and have over a thousand customers. “We were one of the first labs to launch free-form and because we offered a turnaround in 24 hours, there was a lot of interest,” Robert said. “We did a lot of marketing and we tried to accumulate as many diverse products as possible to give eyecare professionals (ECPs) choices.” FAST TURNAROUND US Optical offers a 24-hour turnaround on uncuts and three to five days on complete edged jobs. The uncut order needs to come in by 1pm EST to be back the next day. “A lot of high-end stores in the United States like to use us for four reasons: our free-form technology, quality, speed, and for the brand names that we have,” Ralph said. The ratio of uncut to finished work is 60% to 40% and the finish work is growing. They have a lot of experience A6    november 2012

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US Optical’s new 7,500 sq. ft extension will open around Thanksgiving this year. The new Crizal Center will be in operation by March 2013.

with Carl Zeiss Vision Inc.’s antireflective (AR) coatings with four Zeiss machines. About 80% of the orders request AR. The lab is being expanded this Thanksgiving from 12,000 sq. ft. to 19,500 sq. ft. at a cost of $2.5 million. Demand led to the expansion and with it, US Optical is adding another free-form line from Satisloh North America, another MEI System edger, more surfacing lines, and more Crizal® AR coatings. A new Crizal Center will be operational by March 2013. “This time around we’re working with really high-end products, free-form, and AR,” Ron said. “The equipment here is different from our other lab and we also know the business a lot better after 20 years.” DIFFERENT ROLES The three brothers work together doing different things. Ralph does all the marketing and sales. Robert is in charge of customer service and accounting. Ron is responsible for IT and lab manufacturing in addition to AR. “High-end glasses are where our growth is,” Ron said. This includes

frames with AR coating and Transitions® free-form lenses. The lab also does a lot of polarized and specialty wraps. It offers five brands of proprietary lenses too. “We have one of the largest supermarkets of free-form in the country,” Ron said. “We have all brands and every lens in stock.” Every product has a barcode in order to track it. About 99% of their customers are ECPs with 1% coming from other labs. ECPs can check their accounts on the lab’s Web site at USOptical.com. Orders come in by mail, phone, fax, and online. About 35% of orders come through the Web site and that portion of the business is growing. The brothers say their turnaround is still the fastest in the country. “We get the jobs out,” Robert said. “That’s our business model and it’s embedded in our employees. We have the technology and procedural systems in place to do it. It’s not an argument anymore that we’re the fastest lab in America.” STEADY STAFF As the fourth-largest, independently owned, wholesale optical laboratory in

the United States, US Optical has a staff of 86, some of whom have worked with the Cotrans for at least 15 years, others for longer. Five people in the customer service department answer the phones full-time and aim to always pick up a call within three rings. The lines to the toll-free number 800-4GLASSES operate from 9am to 7pm. US Optical often recruits staff through people already working at the lab. They also get staff from the Catholic Charities’ Refugee Program which is a joint initiative between the Catholic Church and the City of Syracuse. US Optical is still very much a family business. Their mother, Lola, aged 82, still comes into the lab to help out. Ron is the only one of the brothers who is married with children. His wife Rola works three days a week in the marketing department. In addition to working at least 12 hours a day and weekends the three brothers only live a few miles away from the lab and from each other. Carol Gilhawley is Editor-in-Chief of OLP. totallyoptical.com

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Congratulations to

on being named Lab Innovator of 2012 We wish continued success to Ralph, Robert & Ron and the entire team at US Optical

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LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012 Q&As WITH THE COTRANS

A Fast, Family-Run, Free-Form Lab US Optical is the second lab owned and run by the three Cotran brothers: Ralph, Ronald, and Robert. Since its founding four-and-a-half years ago, it has focused on high-end free-form products, speed, and quality. OLP’s professional editor, Jim Grootegoed, spoke to the three brothers about their business model. JIM GROOTEGOED Please give us a quick summary of your backgrounds before starting in the lab business. RON COTRAN I’m an industrial engineer by training. I graduated from Syracuse University then worked for Carrier International. I had my own business exporting engineering equipment before we bought Onondaga Optical in 1986. It was near bankruptcy doing only about 80 jobs a day. All the equipment was broken. We bought it anyway because we didn’t know any better. We knew nothing about the optical industry. We changed the name

“The Cotran brothers have huge hearts and are generous with their expertise,” —Jay Sagor, lab manager.

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to Optogenics and developed a high-value/low-cost uncut business and built it up to an average of 1,500 jobs a day. We sold it in 1999 to Essilor of America, Inc. but continued to work at the business until 2007. We left and in 2008 opened US Optical. Today we’re back up to 1,500 jobs a day, except that this time we’re doing it with really highend products: free-form, anti-reflective (AR) coatings, and finished jobs. JG Ron, what is your present job? RON I run manufacturing and IT, but basically we’re all kind of interchangeable. We can pretty much step into each other’s jobs here. But we don’t have to because we’re always around here anyway! JG Robert, what’s your background? ROBERT COTRAN I’m a civil engineer and I have an MBA in marketing and finance. I graduated from Syracuse University and worked in international marketing for Caesar’s World. Caesar’s World is the corporate umbrella that owns Caesar’s Palace and MGM Grand and all those other hotels. Our dad was looking for a business that was doing badly for all the wrong reasons. We heard about an optical company that was going to close. We saw Onondaga Optical on Tuesday and Ron and I bought it on a Thursday in 1986. We named it Optogenics after a racehorse! I’m responsible for finance and customer service and I can run the lab as well.

JG What about you, Ralph? RALPH COTRAN I have an undergraduate degree in economics and an MBA in finance and marketing from Syracuse University. I was in the international insurance brokerage business until 1998. I ran the international division of some of the largest insurance brokers on the west coast. And, though not present, I always owned a third of Optogenics. In 1998, Ron and Robert convinced me to move back to East Syracuse and join the company. Once we sold it, I stayed on at Optogenics working for Essilor for eight additional years. JG I’m guessing that when you started US Optical you had pretty different business objectives? RON Well, Optogenics took 20 years to make it what it was. JG What did you do differently? ROBERT Well, for one thing, we now specialize in high-end products, highindex lenses, free-form, AR, finish work. The equipment was different four years ago, so today there are more automation possibilities. And we also know the business a lot better after 20 years. We get the jobs out. That’s our business model and it’s embedded in our employees. We have the technology and procedural systems in place to do it. It’s not an argument anymore that we’re the fastest lab in America. JG What you’ve done is taken

the new technology and experience and wrapped it around your new business plan. RALPH That is correct. And we’ve also changed the way we get new business. In the old lab, we really didn’t have a sales force. We only had one salesperson in Florida. With US Optical, we hit the ground running. We said we’re going to do what we do best. We did direct response marketing, along with having competent opticians and experienced salespeople in key states who fit well with what we produce. We offer high-end free-form with overnight service. RON Difficult-to-edge frames… RALPH Difficult jobs, wrap technology—so we try and match it up with large population areas where they have the same needs and where we can fulfill those needs. JG So does that mean you’re going primarily urban? RALPH We’re targeting states that have a large population where we believe we can grow our business. I’ll give you an example. Arizona is not a strong state for us because it’s primarily VSP Optics Group. Every time I open an account in Arizona, the first two questions are: “Do you have Varilux® and do you have VSP?” and I say, no and no, and that pretty much ends the conversation. Sometimes, however, they are open to our branded free-form products and 24 hour turnaround as an alternative if Varilux is the only totallyoptical.com

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Q&As WITH THE COTRANS

concern. VSP is a tougher nut to crack at this juncture. So that’s how we look at our business. Take California, it’s a big state for us. Even though it’s VSP, there’s still a huge non-VSP population in a very healthy market. JG You guys seem to be doing it all. ROBERT We do seven things that we think make us different. RALPH 1. We do speed—24 hours on uncuts, three to five working days on complete jobs. 2. We’re an independent, family-owned business, so we really care about the independent eyecare professional (ECP). We like to cater to the small mom-and-pop operations, even in the large urban

areas, because they’re like us. They’re independent and we care. 3. We’ve got more choices than anybody else on free-form. We’ve just signed a HOYA VISION CARE, North America contract and their free-form lenses are now available. Essilor is going to give us their DEFINITY™ progressive lenses to process here as well as their digital non-Varilux design. We also just signed a Crizal® contract with Essilor. Our goal is to become like Macy’s—to give the ECP, and ultimately the consumer, choices, and that’s what I think we’ve tried to achieve, and that’s another one of the benefits. 4. We’re easy to work with. You have a problem, we can take care of it. 5. We’ve got the best edgers in the world and we specialize in difficult shapes, drill mounts, wraps, and

sunglass frames. 6. We have net competitive—but fair—pricing. It’s important that it’s a win-win for both parties. We don’t inflate our pricing and then tell you we’re going to give you a 40% discount. We don’t do that because our pricing is already fair. And then we believe that, coupled with all the other benefits, our products have a value over any other lab because of the way we can get stuff to you quickly. Speed is imperative nowadays, especially in tourist areas. 7. And lastly, we’re going to always be at the cutting-edge of new technologies. For example, we were the first to launch PixelOptics Inc.’s electronic eyeglasses. JG Unfortunately, now on hold. Our industry needs exciting new technology like Pixel’s.

LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012

“We try to provide exceptional customer service with speedy and accurate information,” —Patty Magyar, customer service phone room manager.

congratulations.

To US Optical for being named “Lab Innovator of 2012.”

satisloh.com | 800.866.5640

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LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012 Q&As WITH THE COTRANS

know, it’s very complicated to produce these lenses. It’s not turn-key.

Nina Pollic, Otto Calabria, and Jody Evans, Quality Control and Finishing Department Experts.

RON The next generation is coming out soon. Pixel has refined their labs so that they can produce the glasses. You

RALPH I definitely believe electronics are here to stay. So we’re always involved in cutting edge, you know, Vantage™ from Transitions Optical Inc., Safilo USA’s Carrera’s X-cede, Sun Rx Program, PhotoFusion by Carl Zeiss Vision, Inc., so ECPs will also benefit because we’re always looking for the next new thing. These

are the seven ways we really try to differentiate ourselves and incorporate them into our marketing. RON And we’re spending a lot of money now on an addition to our building as well as new equipment. By January 2013, everything should be installed and running. We’re getting an additional free-form line. We’ve just bought another edger. We’re getting a whole Crizal center. JG What is your geographic reach? RALPH Primarily east coast, west coast, and southeast. JG And how many salesfolks do you have?

RALPH Eight. We’ve got upstate New York, New York City metropolitan area, northeast New England, North and South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and California. JG That leaves our whole great Midwest. RALPH We haven’t started there yet. JG Do you do business-to-business work with other labs? RALPH Yes, we are very lab friendly. Some labs use us because we’re faster than their own processing systems. And a lot of labs use us because they don’t have the technology that we have. Once you start using this high-tech equipment, there are things

Congratulations! To US Optical for being named “Lab Innovator 2012”

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Q&As WITH THE COTRANS

LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012

Carl Zeiss Vision congratulates US Optical, on being named Lab Innovator of the Year. us. So we have 70%-80% AR. Same turnaround, 24 hours on uncuts with AR. JG What is free-form as a percentage of progressive addition lenses (PALs)? RALPH As a percentage of the whole business, it’s about 35% to 40%, but as a percentage of PALs it’s 60% to 70%.

Continued success to Ralph, Ronald, Robert and the entire company.

JG That’s a good business model: PALs, free-form, and AR. RON Yes. That’s what we were telling you at the beginning—we specialize in the high-end.

“Our turnaround is still the fastest in the country,” —Brian

RALPH A lot of high-end stores in the United States like to use us for four reasons: free-form technology, quality, speed, and the brands that we have. CZV_LabInnovator2012.indd They like brand names.

Whitford, customer service supervisor.

JG Do you do any in-house marketing for your customers in support of your private label?

you can do that other people can’t. For example, we do a digital slab-off.

RALPH Oh, we have done some. If somebody needs a private label lens, we can create one and give them the flyers, but we’re not going to pay for the marketing.

RON That was invented by Jay Sagor, our lab manager. RALPH These are like side products that come out of the technology. He can do it in one day where it used to take a week.

JG Will you use the lens manufacturers’ marketing programs?

JG What is your percentage of finished and uncut?

JG You promote your 24-hour turnaround. Have you ever missed a deadline?

RON Our finish keeps growing. Right now it’s about 40% plus, and uncuts is still around 60%, but definitely the finished work is growing. JG How about AR? RON Because we have AR in-house, people have a tendency to order from totallyoptical.com

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Congratulations

10/18/12 2:31 PM

U.S. Optical Lab Innovator of 2012

RALPH Yes.

RALPH Here’s how it works. Order by 1pm eastern time, let us know you need the uncut job tomorrow, and we will give it to you tomorrow. If it doesn’t make it out through quality control, we’ll call you by 9pm and let you know. If it gets rejected, we’ll call and leave a message.

Wishing you continued success from our team to yours!

www.LookToPSI.com november 2012    A11

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LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012 Q&As WITH THE COTRANS

SEIKO Optical Congratulates US Optical on winning Lab Innovator 2012

RON Even if we have to run it three times, it’s going to make it.

JG For AR, do you have anything other than Zeiss?

JG Well, it’s probably more of an inventory issue than anything else.

RON We will have a new Crizal Center in operation by March 2013. And, we’re adding 7,500 sq. ft. to the back of our building.

RON But if it’s free-form, it’s less of an inventory problem as we just stock the semi-finished single vision lens blanks. RALPH That’s another thing about our inventory. We try to stay very, very deep in inventory because of the business model. JG Is there anything else about your business model that you’d like to mention?

CREATING THE BEST VISION

SEIKO Optical Products of America, Inc.

ROBERT The most important thing about our business model is that we are here for our customers. We exist for them.

CONGRATULATIONS TO US OPTICAL ON BEING NAMED LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012

JG Tell me about your employees. RON Well, we’ve only been in business for four years, but the majority of our employees have worked for us for at least 15 years, some since 1986. We currently have 86 staff in total.

JG And that would be primarily for the Crizal coating? RON It’s not only coating because we also ordered another free-form line. JG So you have three free-form lines now? RON And we’ll soon have four. We’re trying to not run any jobs on the conventional line because of the superior quality from the free-form lines. Unfortunately, because of volume variations you can’t always do that. So we’ll run some single vision on the regular line. We do have an advantage in that all our equipment is relatively new; we don’t have older technology that we have to use. JG Who are you going with for your new free-form line? RON Satisloh.

JG Former employees heard about you and applied? RON Yes. They came to us over the years. And, they’re all extremely experienced and knowledgeable. Our customer service people are absolutely the best—conscientious and experienced.

CONTINUED SUCCESS FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT ULTRA OPTICS

JG Are there any marketing materials you use, like direct mail? RON We do a bunch of direct mail. Also, our Web site is usoptical.com. Simply click on “Lab Tour” to learn about us. Your readers have probably seen all this before but they might be interested in seeing our lab.

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JG I would think from a maintenance standpoint that you would tend to go with one supplier. RON That certainly makes sense but I think there’s going to be a second generation of free-form products coming out that’s going to be even better. JG How can it get any better? RON It’ll be easier to make and more accurate. You’ll have better materials. We’re at 1.74 now, right? You know, there may be a 2.0 index on the way. JG Anything else you guys want totallyoptical.com

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Q&As WITH THE COTRANS

to say? RON Yes. We have five proprietary products which are US Optical-designed free-form lenses. The Ultimate HD which will compete with the best out there and is available in a PAL, single vision, and a D25. Then we also have an even more advanced free-form, the Advanced HD, which is pretty advanced too with a larger reading area than the Ultimate HD. We have a Wrap HD PAL design and two single vision products. So those are the five bread-and-butter free-form products that we have that are proprietary in addition to all the brands. JG Anything else you promote? RALPH Yes. We have Shamir Insight,

Inc.’s Autograph II Office™. Then, of course, we do HOYA’s Hoyalux Tact. We also have the Access, the Gradal RD, and the Business from Zeiss. The occupational lenses are a wonderful technology but only a small part of our business. JG I know. It should be larger. RON Right. You know what’s a really big part of our business? The wraps— Oakley, Inc., Rudy Project, North America, and others. RALPH As far as ECPs go we try to do seminars in conjunction with the manufacturers to inform them of the new products that come in. For example, all over the country now we’re doing Transitions® Vantage™

LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012

seminars. We’ve done them in upstate New York and Massachusetts. We’re doing them in North and South Carolina and California. So we try to join forces with the suppliers to promote new technology. We’ve also done some joint seminars with Shamir. Wherever there’s new technologies and great products that the American consumer can benefit from, we try and bring it to the ECPs in conjunction with the manufacturers. JG Will you do mail promotions on that too? RALPH Yes, we do a ton of mail promotions. We’re into technology. That’s what we sell—technology and speed. We’re the “Fastest Lab in America™!”

“Everything has a barcode to track it,” —Indira Halilovic, inventory manager.

for being recognized as Lab Innovator of 2012! Kodak and the Kodak trade dress are trademarks of Kodak, used under license by Signet Armorlite, Inc. ©2012 Signet Armorlite, Inc.

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LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012 TECHNOLOGY

New Equipment All the Way US Optical will soon run four lines of free-form. The Cotrans bought all new equipment when they opened the lab’s doors four-and-a-half years ago. Now, with the lab’s nearly completed extension, they are adding new machines to include more Crizal AR coating, a new edger, and more surfacing lines. BY CAROL GILHAWLEY

SINCE US OPTICAL is only four years old, all its equipment is brand new. In Optogenics, the old lab that they previously owned and subsequently sold to Essilor of America, Inc., the Cotran brothers specialized and pushed mostly uncuts. With US Optical they’ve taken the position that the optical industry is moving toward more edging and

complete jobs on behalf of labs and so they are investing in quality and technology. Ron, Ralph, and Robert were always up on technology. They went to one of Satisloh North America’s SLUGfests where they saw this new digital technology called free-form and decided to open their own free-form lab. Soon, they will operate four

free-form lines. The first and second lines they bought were from Satisloh. The third line was from Schneider Optical Machines Inc., and the fourth line they will install in December is also from Satisloh. “We wanted machines from both companies so that we could have experience with both, but I think they pretty much all do the same thing,” said Ron. “Some of the jobs we can’t run on Schneider and some of the jobs you can’t run on Satisloh and some of the jobs you can’t run on either—you have to run it on a conventional machine, such as the very high plus powers and small B measurements.” Now, US Optical has two BispheraXDD MEI automatic edgers which, according to Ron, “are the most expensive, finest edgers in the world. Because, interestingly, once you get an MEI, you don’t want another edger. You don’t want a different type of edger

because you get spoiled.” The lab’s staff is highly trained in the most complicated, drill mount edging processes. US Optical sent Ron LaCross, an MEI edger specialist in the Finishing Department, and two other finishing department specialists to the MEI School in Chicago to learn how to operate and calibrate the two MEI edgers. They received certifications. “We needed a second MEI machine because we had so much work,” LaCross said. The second MEI edger came in July 2012. US Optical has invested in free-form technology. The lab is being expanded this Thanksgiving from 12,000 sq. ft. to 19,500 sq. ft. at a cost of $2.5 million. Demand led to the expansion and with it, US Optical is adding a fourth free-form line, more surfacing lines, and more anti-reflective (AR) coating. A new Crizal® Center will be operational by March 2013. “This time around we’re working

Ron LaCross, MEI edger specialist in the Finishing Department, stands in front of one of US Optical’s two MEI Edgers.

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TECHNOLOGY

with really high-end products, coatings,” Ron said. “The equipment here is different from our other lab and we also know the business a lot better after 20 years.” When they owned Optogenics, free-form lenses didn’t exist. “So even if it’s not a free-form lens, the free-form equipment will make the lens a lot more accurate just to begin with, in controlling thicknesses, edging thicknesses, powers, everything is just more accurate,” said Ron. He runs the lab and programs all the software used by US Optical. Finish work is not new to the Cotrans but the modern machinery makes it much easier. For example, they use the A&R Optical Machinery Inc. automated inspection and blocking system for their finish work. Their lab manage-

ment software is run by CC Systems. They use everybody’s free-form software. They began with Seiko Optical Products of America, Inc. followed by Shamir Insight, Inc. The third software was from Carl Zeiss Vision, Inc. They also have HOYA VISION CARE, North America, and will be getting DEFINITY™ and some non-branded digital lenses from Essilor of America, Inc. In addition, they have a “house” non-branded software with three designs. “So we’ve got a nice mix,” said Ralph. “And then we also have produced lenses that can’t be copied, so these private label companies produce stuff that is only for US Optical.” Carol Gilhawley is Editor-in-Chief of OLP.

LAB INNOVATOR OF 2012

US OPTICAL’S LAB EQUIPMENT 1 National Optronics 5T Frame Tracer 1 National Optronics 7T Frame Tracer

1 LaserOp Ltd. Lensmark Manual Lens Engraver

2 PSI Lens Tape Machines

2 Teco TP2 V90-302 lens stamp machines

3 Satisloh PRA Blockers

2 Bisphera-XDD MEI automatic edgers

1 NCR Tray Stacker

2 National Optronics HLP edgers

2 Simplimatic Tray Stackers

1 Satisloh ES3 edger

2 Satisloh VFT Ultra Generators

2 BPI Tinting units

1 Schneider HSC smart Xp Generator

2 BPI Safety Vent Hoods

1 Coburn DTL Generator

1 Satisloh Magna-Spin 2SV backcoater

8 Satisloh Auto-Flex soft pad Polishers

2 Ultraoptics MR-3 backcoaters

2 Schneider CCP-103 dual head Polishers

1 Interlab Wash Unit

3 Coburn CMX-50 Finers

3 ZEISS B-12 AR coating machines

8 Coburn CMX- 50 Polishers

1 ZEISS A-20 AR coating machine

1 A&R Rob Control Unit

2 ZEISS DAS-1 Hydrophobic coating units

1 Satisloh ALC Robotic Lens Engraver

2 ZEISS C10S Hydrophobic coating units

Who Supports More LMS’s Than Any Other Provider? [email protected] www.opticalonline.com

1-800-708-1736

Congratulations to US Optical, Fastest Lab in America™

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Congratulations Optical Lab Products is proud to honor US Optical. Best wishes for continued success to Ralph, Ronald, Robert and the entire company.