UltraVision

Last updated

UltraVision CLPL
FormerlyContact Lens Precision Laboratories
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">Optics</span> Branch of physics that studies light

Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. Because light is an electromagnetic wave, other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays, microwaves, and radio waves exhibit similar properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bausch & Lomb</span> Canadian eye health company

Bausch + Lomb is an eye health products company based in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the world's largest suppliers of contact lenses, lens care products, pharmaceuticals, intraocular lenses, and other eye surgery products. The company was founded in Rochester, New York, in 1853 by optician John Bausch and cabinet maker turned financial backer Henry Lomb. Until its sale in 2013, Bausch + Lomb was one of the oldest continually operating companies in the United States.

<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 multi-national 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. Lenses and curved mirrors are prime examples, because this shape is easier to manufacture. 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.

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

Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effect of incoming wavefront distortions by deforming a mirror in order to compensate for the 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. For most people, LASIK provides a long-lasting alternative to eyeglasses or contact lenses.

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">PerkinElmer</span> American corporation focused on life science research

PerkinElmer, Inc., previously styled Perkin-Elmer, is an American global corporation focused in the business areas of diagnostics, life science research, food, environmental and industrial testing. Its capabilities include detection, imaging, informatics, and service. PerkinElmer produces analytical instruments, genetic testing and diagnostic tools, medical imaging components, software, instruments, and consumables for multiple end markets.

<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.

Essilor International is a French-based international ophthalmic optics company that designs, manufactures and markets lenses to correct or protect eyesight. Its headquarters is in Charenton-le-Pont, France.

The Cooper Companies, Inc., branded as CooperCompanies, is a global medical device company, publicly traded on the NYSE (NYSE:COO). With its headquarters in San Ramon, California, it has a workforce of more than 12,000 employees worldwide and consists of two business units, CooperVision (CVI) which manufactures contact lenses, and CooperSurgical (CSI) which manufactures medical devices and fertility and genomic products for the women’s health care market.

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>

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 Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation (Technology) (2006) was awarded on 21 April 2006, 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.

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 ]