NIDEK have the answer to high volume retail edging
2 January 2016
One of the fastest wet cut edger’s in the world, the Nidek SE-9090, has re-invented itself from the mass production laboratories into high volume retail facilities and Birmingham Optical are celebrating its success following the 70th installation onto the high street.
For over 15 years the Nidek SE-9090 high speed edger has sat proud in almost all large glazing production facilities throughout the UK and is now making a huge impact in retail opticians who have in-store glazing. Now with the 70th retail store installation, the SE-9090 has created the perfect glazing solution and is resulting in many positive outcomes on the high street:
To say we’re happy would be a massive understatement. The new Nidek SE-9090 is unreal and the difference is night and day! It’s made such a massive improvement to an already efficient lab. In its first month it clocked up around 8,000 lenses. It could do so many more. We love it!!
Robert Lofting, Director at Specsavers in Hastings.
The latest fourth generation SE-9090 hosts revolutionary technologies thanks to continuous R&D by the Japanese creator Nidek. Due to the unique twin grinding wheels hosted by this lens edger, speed and versatility are the prominent benefits along with the elimination of ‘lens drag’ and all the problems this can cause. The twin wheels grind in opposing directions at the same time thus eliminating axis shift throughout the edging process. High curve lenses are processed with ease as are lenses that require auto-grooving.
As one of the most versatile edger’s on the market, the Nidek SE-9090 can be used in conjunction with various Nidek automated systems, allowing the device to grow with the clients business. With many high street retailers now using the SE-9090 solely as a bench top edger, another popular configuration is to couple the edger with the pick and place system NIDEK RHU-1000 (known as ‘the Robot’). When placed together, this allows customers to load 10 pairs of lenses (and with no human intervention) the 10 pairs will be loaded to the edger, edged as required and unloaded within approx. 25 mins. Together, the SE-9090 and RHU-1000 produce a very small footprint of only 800mm x 1185mm, another reason this system is so well accepted to the retail laboratory.
With the 70th SE-9090 being installed into an optical retailer and a total of 120 devices already used throughout the UK laboratory network, this edger is now extremely popular within UK optical manufacturing. The first ever SE-9090 and RHU-1000 ‘Robot’ to be sold in the world to a retail store is making a huge impact as David Stockton, Director at Specsavers Middlesborough says:
Have I seen a benefit? Absolutely, yes and would I do it again? Absolutely yes! In fact I did. I now have two! The combination of ‘the Robot’ with SE-9090 has delivered all of my expectations and contributed to the success of our business.
Birmingham Optical’s Senior Sales Manager Deep Singh (SMC Tech) says: “It’s great to see Nidek’s high volume automated edging solutions entering the retail environment. The key consideration of all those that invest in this system is the versatility of the edger, many buy the SE-9090 knowing they can simply add on the RHU-1000 pick and place device at a time when their business growth dictates the need.
I believe the success of this Nidek system has been down to providing an edging package that has a small footprint, speed without the compromise of quality, and with many automated configurations to support any future increase in the capacity requirement of the client. It is also very cost efficient. We are very proud to be in a position to offer such great options”
Where mass volume is considered, Birmingham Optical understands service is very important and therefore they have a dedicated support hotline for Nidek SE-9090 clients; offering access to a specialised service team. Ongoing training is available to ensure our customers maximise the features of the machine and bespoke preventative maintenance contracts are available.