Varilux

Varilux

Varilux is a brand that manufactured the first progressive addition lens in 1967, designed by Maitenaz. The Varilux contact lens system has gradations of refractive powers that are more continuously graded, similar to the multifocal cornea, and distinct areas of the lens are prepared with different specific powers, creating a multifocal effect in spectacles.From: Handbook of Visual Optics, Two-Volume Set [2019], Hyperopia and Presbyopia [2019]

Ophthalmic lenses

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Purchase Book

Published in Pablo Artal, Handbook of Visual Optics, 2017

Daniel Malacara

A second more popular solution is to manufacture the lenses with a shape such that the dioptric power varies in a smooth fashion over the whole surface of the lens, increasing from the upper to the lower zones. The first progressive addition lens was manufactured by Varilux and was designed by Maitenaz (1967). A review of progressive addition lenses is given by Bourdoncle et al. (1992). In the Omnifocal lenses the dioptric power varies quite slow but in others, like in the Varilux, the change is faster. In others, the variation is even faster in some regions of the lens. These lenses are known as progressive power lenses. Figure 10.17 shows one of these lenses.

Modern spectacle lens design

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Journal Information

Published in Clinical and Experimental Optometry, 2020

Mohammed Jalie

The first commercially successful progressive power lens was developed by Bernard Maitenaz of Essel, one of the founding members of Essilor International, and introduced in Europe under the trade name Varilux in 1959.15 It was pointed out in 1963 by the German scientist Minkwitz1963 that a surface in which power increased across its face must also have an astigmatic effect, whereby the astigmatism increases at twice the rate of change in power and lies at right angles to the direction of the change in power. Since that time, the goal of progressive lens design has been to minimise the effects of so‐called Minkwitz astigmatism.

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Ophthalmic lenses

Modern spectacle lens design