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High Performance Sunglasses
When you reach for your sunglasses on a bright sunny day have you ever really thought about how they work? I’m sure that you haven’t but what about when you go to purchase a new pair? Now you might wonder how they work especially with such a wide range of choices and the new high performance sunglasses available. Let’s take a closer look at sunglasses so the next time your looking to purchase a new pair you have a better idea of what to look for.
Sunglasses look like such a simple thing but they are much more complex than you may realize. As you will see there is a big difference in the various types of high performance eyewear available today. A good pair of sunglasses should provide protection from ultraviolet rays and also from light itself. Good sunglasses can also protect your eyes from glare and eliminate specific frequencies of light. Certain frequencies of light can blur your vision and others can actually enhance contrast.
Today high performance sunglasses use a variety of advanced technologies to control light. These technologies include tinting, polarization, mirroring, anti-reflective coatings, scratch resistant coatings, and UV coatings. The color of the tint used in lenses determines what part of the light spectrum they absorb. Polarized filters are a chemical film applied to the lens to eliminate glare. Mirroring is also an applied coating easily scratches. Anti-reflective coatings are used to reduce the light that hits the back of the lens and bounces into the eyes and UV coatings eliminate harmful UV radiation from reaching your eyes.
Light is polarized when the light waves are aligned into one or more planes of direction.
The chemical compounds used in the films which are applied to the lens are composed of molecules that align in parallel relation to one another. When they are applied evenly to a lens, the molecules create a microscopic filter that absorbs light which matches their alignment. When wearing high performance eyewear with polarized lenses you will enjoy a clearer view and eliminate glare.
There are several types of lens materials used today. One is glass which is heavy but is also much more resistant to scratches. Another more advanced technology is CR-39 which is a plastic made from hard resin that meets optical quality standards. Polycarbonate is yet another new technology which is a synthetic plastic material that is extremely strong and very lightweight. Polycarbonate is the lightest and most impact-resistant of today’s lenses and used in most high performance sunglasses.
Polycarbonate and glass lenses are distortion free and the colors are evenly distributed across each lens. Distortion is very common in cheap sunglasses. There is an easy way to tell if the lenses in a pair of sunglasses are of good quality. Find a surface with parallel lines and hold the sunglasses a short distance away from your face and cover one eye. Look through one of the lenses at the lines while moving the sunglasses slowly up and down and then from right to left. The lines should remain straight as you look at them. If they don’t then the lenses are not optical quality.
Glass is a naturally scratch resistant material but most plastics are not. Manufacturers have developed a variety of ways to add films to lenses that increase their scratch resistance. These films are made of materials such as DLC or diamond-like carbon and polycrystalline diamond. Through ionization a thin but very durable film is created on the surface of the lens. These coatings surely don’t have the scratch resistance of glass but they go a long way in helping to keep your lenses scratch free.
Visible light or white light is a major concern in the comfort that high performance sunglasses provide. Our sunglasses provide varying levels of protection from visible light. Another technological advancement in eyewear is in the form of the tinting of the lens. Today you will find many choices in tints from smoke which provides true color reproduction to brown for heightened contrast and depth perception. Also you will find yellow lenses to brighten hazy days and even clear sunglass lenses that still provide 100% UV protection.
With so many technological advances in eyewear today the available choices seem endless. I hope that this article helped to enlighten you to many of the new technologies available to you today so that when you buy your next pair of high performance sunglasses you find the best pair for your particular needs and ultimately your comfort.
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