Hardening vs Anti-reflective Coating

by Toad
(Nebraska)

Q: Is hardening the same as anti-reflective?

My eyedoctor has listed hardening on my bill. When I asked what hardening is he told me it was the anti-reflective surface. Are they one in the same as others have not heard of this.

Thanks


A: Hello Toad,

Every lens has different coatings made for different purposes.
For example, there are coatings meant to protect the lenses and coatings intended to protect your eyes and improve vision.

From the first category, I can mention the hardening coating, the hydrophobic and oleofob layers (keeps the lenses clean and spotless, or as they say: the “easy to clean” lenses).

From the second category, I will mention the photochromatic coating, the anti-reflective coating, the polarized coating, etc.
These are the coatings that optimize the quantity of light that reaches your eyes, so you have an optimal vision and comfort.

As you can see, the two layers you mentioned are two different things and have different functions so the two cannot be the same.

What is true is that usually, there is no lens with anti-reflective layer that does not have hardening coating, so they are together on the lens, but not the same thing.

On the other side, there are lenses with hardening but no anti-reflective coating.
All in all, they are two different coatings with two separate functions.

Related Pages

Anti-Reflective Coating
Photochromatic Lenses

Hope this helps,
Arpi

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