UltraVision

Last updated

UltraVision CLPL
FormerlyContact Lens Precision Laboratories
Company typePrivate Limited Company
Industry Ophthalmology
Founded1967
Headquarters Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England
Key people
  • John H Clamp, Co-CEO, CTO
  • Diane Angell, Co-CEO
  • J. Keith Lomas, Non-Exec. Dir.
  • Dick Newell, Non-Exec. Dir.
Website www.ultravision.co.uk

UltraVision CLPL is a contact lens manufacturer, with headquarters in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England. It ships products across the world.

Contents

History

Contact Lens Precision Laboratories (CLPL), was founded in Cambridge in 1967. J. Keith Lomas, who was the company's managing director between 1996 and 2017, oversaw the acquisition of UltraVision in July 2003. [1] Upon that acquisition, the company name was changed to the UltraVision CLPL group. [2]

UltraVision CLPL opened a research-and-development office in 2007. [3] Based in Cambridge, this office has developed various types of contact-lens technologies, including freeform surface modelling, toric lens design, and wavefront technologies, as well as lenses for persons suffering from keratoconus and corneal trauma, KeraSoft.

In April 2018 Contact Lens Precision Laboratories was acquired by SEED Co., Ltd.

Awards

In 2001, UltraVision's Spherical Aberration Management technology received the Award for Innovation in British Optics from the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers. [4] In the same year, the company received a Technology Award from EFCLIN (the European Federation of Contact Lens Industry). [5]

UltraVision CLPL has received The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation twice  first in 2006 for its Spherical Aberration Management and Wavefront technologies [6] and again in April 2010 [7] for KeraSoft, UltraVision's patented contact lens for irregular corneas. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lens</span> Optical device which transmits and refracts light

A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (elements), usually arranged along a common axis. Lenses are made from materials such as glass or plastic and are ground, polished, or molded to the required shape. A lens can focus light to form an image, unlike a prism, which refracts light without focusing. Devices that similarly focus or disperse waves and radiation other than visible light are also called "lenses", such as microwave lenses, electron lenses, acoustic lenses, or explosive lenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Zeiss AG</span> German optics company

Carl Zeiss AG, branded as ZEISS, is a German manufacturer of optical systems and optoelectronics, founded in Jena, Germany in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott he laid the foundation for today's multinational company. The current company emerged from a reunification of Carl Zeiss companies in East and West Germany with a consolidation phase in the 1990s. ZEISS is active in four business segments with approximately equal revenue in almost 50 countries, has 30 production sites and around 25 development sites worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spherical aberration</span> Optical aberration

In optics, spherical aberration (SA) is a type of aberration found in optical systems that have elements with spherical surfaces. This phenomenon commonly affects lenses and curved mirrors, as these components are often shaped in a spherical manner for ease of manufacturing. Light rays that strike a spherical surface off-centre are refracted or reflected more or less than those that strike close to the centre. This deviation reduces the quality of images produced by optical systems. The effect of spherical aberration was first identified in the 11th century by Ibn al-Haytham who discussed it in his work Kitāb al-Manāẓir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adaptive optics</span> Technique used in optical systems

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technique of precisely deforming a mirror in order to compensate for light distortion. It is used in astronomical telescopes and laser communication systems to remove the effects of atmospheric distortion, in microscopy, optical fabrication and in retinal imaging systems to reduce optical aberrations. Adaptive optics works by measuring the distortions in a wavefront and compensating for them with a device that corrects those errors such as a deformable mirror or a liquid crystal array.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LASIK</span> Corrective ophthalmological surgery

LASIK or Lasik, commonly referred to as laser eye surgery or laser vision correction, is a type of refractive surgery for the correction of myopia, hyperopia, and an actual cure for astigmatism, since it is in the cornea. LASIK surgery is performed by an ophthalmologist who uses a laser or microkeratome to reshape the eye's cornea in order to improve visual acuity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astigmatism (optical systems)</span> Optical aberration

An optical system with astigmatism is one where rays that propagate in two perpendicular planes have different foci. If an optical system with astigmatism is used to form an image of a cross, the vertical and horizontal lines will be in sharp focus at two different distances. The term comes from the Greek α- (a-) meaning "without" and στίγμα (stigma), "a mark, spot, puncture".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wavefront</span> Locus of points at equal phase in a wave

In physics, the wavefront of a time-varying wave field is the set (locus) of all points having the same phase. The term is generally meaningful only for fields that, at each point, vary sinusoidally in time with a single temporal frequency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PerkinElmer</span> American corporation focused on life science research

PerkinElmer, Inc., previously styled Perkin-Elmer, is an American global corporation that was founded in 1937 and originally focused on precision optics. Over the years it went into and out of several different businesses via acquisitions and divestitures; these included defense products, semiconductors, computer systems, and others. By the 21st century, PerkinElmer was focused in the business areas of diagnostics, life science research, food, environmental and industrial testing. Its capabilities include detection, imaging, informatics, and service. It produced analytical instruments, genetic testing and diagnostic tools, medical imaging components, software, instruments, and consumables for multiple end markets. PerkinElmer was part of the S&P 500 Index and operated in 190 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aspheric lens</span> Type of lens

An aspheric lens or asphere is a lens whose surface profiles are not portions of a sphere or cylinder. In photography, a lens assembly that includes an aspheric element is often called an aspherical lens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Schott</span> German chemist, glass technologist, and inventor (1851–1935)

Friedrich Otto Schott (1851–1935) was a German chemist, glass technologist, and the inventor of borosilicate glass. Schott systematically investigated the relationship between the chemical composition of the glass and its properties. In this way, he solved fundamental problems in glass properties, identifying compositions with optical properties that approach the theoretical limit. Schott's findings were a major advance in the optics for microscopy and optical astronomy. His work has been described as "a watershed in the history of glass composition".

Johnson & Johnson Vision (JJV) is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson and is composed of two divisions, Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision and Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. Services include Intraocular lenses, laser vision correction systems, phacoemulsification systems, viscoelastic, Microkeratomes and related products used in cataract and refractive surgery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microlens</span> Small lens, generally with a diameter less than a millimetre

A microlens is a small lens, generally with a diameter less than a millimetre (mm) and often as small as 10 micrometres (μm). The small sizes of the lenses means that a simple design can give good optical quality but sometimes unwanted effects arise due to optical diffraction at the small features. A typical microlens may be a single element with one plane surface and one spherical convex surface to refract the light. Because micro-lenses are so small, the substrate that supports them is usually thicker than the lens and this has to be taken into account in the design. More sophisticated lenses may use aspherical surfaces and others may use several layers of optical material to achieve their design performance.

Albert A. Bouwers (1893–1972) was a Dutch optical engineer. He is known for developing and working with X-rays and various optical technologies as a high-level researcher at Philips research labs. He is lesser known for patenting in 1941 a catadioptric meniscus telescope design similar to but slightly predating the Maksutov telescope.

Varilux is a brand name belonging to Essilor International, a producer of corrective lenses. The first version of the lens was invented by Bernard Maitenaz and released in 1959, and was the first modern progressive lens to correct presbyopia. The progressive lens is characterized by correcting near, intermediate and far vision.

KeraSoft is a patented range of soft and silicone hydrogel contact lenses designed to manage the condition of irregular corneas including keratoconus. They are marketed as an alternative to rigid gas-permeable lenses, offering improved comfort and longer wearing times.

The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation (Technology) (2010) was awarded on 21 April 2010, by Queen Elizabeth II.

The eye, like any other optical system, suffers from a number of specific optical aberrations. The optical quality of the eye is limited by optical aberrations, diffraction and scatter. Correction of spherocylindrical refractive errors has been possible for nearly two centuries following Airy's development of methods to measure and correct ocular astigmatism. It has only recently become possible to measure the aberrations of the eye and with the advent of refractive surgery it might be possible to correct certain types of irregular astigmatism.

ALPAO is a company which manufactures a range of adaptive optics products for use in research and industry, including deformable mirrors with large strokes, wavefront sensors, and adaptive optics loops. These products are designed for astronomy, vision science, microscopy, wireless optical communications, and laser applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CooperVision</span>

CooperVision, Inc. is a business unit of The Cooper Companies, Inc.. It is primarily a soft contact lens manufacturer. The company was founded in 1980, and it is headquartered in Pleasanton, California. Its products are sold in over 100 countries.

Walter Thompson Welford was a British physicist with expertise in optics.

References

  1. Lens Maker lifts status with major acquisition | Business Weekly Archived June 28, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  2. School friends with an eye on success | Independent, The (London) [ dead link ]
  3. "Better Understanding Through Technology & Emerging Research". www.newsrx.com. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  4. The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers Innovation in British Optics: Winners 2001 Archived June 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Previous Winners". www.efclin.com. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  6. Queens Award for Enterprise: Innovation - Winners of 2006 Archived October 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. "The cutting edge of technology" . Financial Times . Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  8. Optometry Today - UltraVision wins second Queen's Award [ dead link ]