As a surface service provider for companies in the optical industry, Matthias Wetzel INDUSTRIEBSCHRIFTUNGEN GmbH has repeatedly come into contact with the subject of lens edge-blackening. In practice, there is a strong desire to automate the blackening of the edges of optical components.
However, state of the art is the manual application of fast-drying liquid lacquers with a brush or ink writer. For this reason, founder an CEO Matthias Wetzel has recently developed a process to automate the blackening of lens edges, supported by the German federal government.
The aim of this automation is to ensure higherprocess reliability and reproducibility, as previous production processes are subject to strong fluctuations in terms of lacquer film thickness and accuracy.
The process developed had been extensively tested on a first prototype. Based on this research, we have been developing on the development of since October 2017 a series production system with an extended range of functions and significant design changes, such as expandable modular construction to allow blackening and marking in one clamping position.
A highlight of this development is, among other things, blackening with UV inks and immediate drying in a UV drying station. Even the printing of different layers on one component is no challenge.