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Every once in awhile I come across an article that does more than excite me, it inspires. You all have to read this [via Gizmag]:
"Merton Flemings, director of the Lemelson-MIT Program, which sponsors the annual award for inventiveness, cited Griffith’s innovative device eyeglass manufacturing and his work creating comic strips that inspire children to learn about science and engineering as important reasons he was chosen this year.
“It’s sometimes easier for engineers and scientists to work on the next generation of computer chips or the next PDA, but there are some beautiful problems that a lot of people don’t go after because it’s hard to get support and funding and it’s incredibly hard to be successful,” Griffith said. “It would be nice if my work inspired others to address some of these problems and make them more acceptable.”
Griffith’s advances in low-cost lenses sprung from his interests in rapid prototyping technologies and efficient manufacturing. Using a process dubbed programmable molding, he created a portable device similar to a desktop printer that can produce any prescription lens from a single-mould surface in less than ten minutes.
The device casts the lenses by applying pressure and constraints to a programmable membrane, which becomes the mould surface when under pressure. The current device uses car window tinting film for the membrane and a reservoir of baby oil for applying the correct pressure. A large range of lens types, covering the majority of prescriptions, can be cast from two such mould surfaces.
Traditional lens manufacturing systems require expensive moulds for each lens type. In remote rural areas, it is cost-prohibitive to maintain a library of thousands of lenses for relatively small populations of people. The traditional process not only comes with enormous inventory and handling costs, but also can result in excessive waste. Griffith’s patent-pending device essentially eliminates these problems."
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