New life style

  People's way of life or living has drastically changed compared to that of the old days.

  Now we are surrounded with very convenient things, not only around-the-clock convenience stores, but also manga coffee shops where you can enjoy reading comic books while drinking coffee, or gas stations, bank's ATMs and beauty parlors. We can easily get anything we want whenever we go out for no reason at all. Through the internet, we can instantly connect to the world and get anything we want. Certainly, the world has become very convenient. But are we really happy with such circumstances? Having pursued only more convenience and function in our daily lives, we profited from mass production and mass consumption. But such an age has already passed. We hear such voices rising everywhere.

  Many people have been aware of our unfavorable living circumstances and relationship with things, which lead them to initiate some movements here and there: to use a good thing for a long time, while cherishing and repairing it, to live with nature while paying respect to it and so on. In 1986, a Slow Food Movement started from BRA in Italy, then a Slow Life Movement followed it. It was 2002 when LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) was introduced for the first time in Japan. Since then, LOHAS (style) has gained recognition among people in Japan. It is said that "2006 is the starting year of full-fledged LOHAS". The movement covers wide areas of people's life style to promote more efficient use of alternative energy or resources, to take in organic foods, to receive acupuncture and moxibustion therapy, to do yoga, to wear organic or recycled textile products, to live in environment-conscious houses and so on. Having taken environmental issues into consideration, we printed this publication without using dampening water in which harmful substances are contained.

  What feature shows the Japanese touch in Japanese products? It is a product manufactured with meticulous attention to detail together with sensitive and high-wrought craftsmanship. These features are exactly the part where we Japanese are good at. Japan is a forerunner who has been manufacturing eyeglasses while taking environment or recycling issues into consideration. To reduce carbon dioxide caused by global warming, the government has been all out to promote the "Cool Biz" fashion to avoid summer heat and "Warm Biz" to keep us warmer in autumn and winter seasons. Environmental consciousness in manufacturing is imperative as well.

  EYETEC Co., Ltd., was the first among several eyeglass surface treatment factories in Japan, who has acquired the international standard "ISO14001". International standard itself is hard to clear, be approved, and keep managing. When we start a cross-industrial business with a leading company, they are sure to confirm the environmental correctness, whether we are approved ISO14001 or not.

   Conducting environmental conservation activities, the company is trying to reduce the amount of electric expense by 10 % year by year. They also made specific targets of achievement by reducing the amount of industrial waste. They set their amount in 2004 as the index standard at 100, 2005 was set at 90, 2006 is to be under 70, and 2007 is to be under 60. As they run a surface treatment factory, they also have been taking in nonpolluting methods for waste water or air while using environmental-friendly chemical agents in their development of a new processing liquid.

  If we remove temple tips from a titanium frame, only the remaining metal frame turns into a valuable resource out of mere trash. EYETEC Co., Ltd. is also contriving ways to make the total weight of remaining materials as little as possible and is recycling the appurtenances from exhibitions as well.

Production center's efforts

  Eyeglass manufacturers have been selling the materials trashed from production to junkmen by collecting the materials in a box in their factory. The grease on those materials is removed, and each metal piece is divided into its own kind and returned to the original suppliers. The material is reused as impurities by being compounded in newly made metals so that it increases the strength.

  Eyeglass materials are facing a drastic change now. Titanium has become popular as an eyeglass material. But the relation between supply and demand is losing its balance because it has been utilized in various other fields such as aviation, space, electric, chemical plant, medical, social welfare, sports, leisure, commercial-off-the-shelf product and so on.

  Under such a situation, magnesium alloy appeared as a material with potential marketability. It is the lightest among the metals in practical use and is the sixth richest metal resource on earth. Furthermore, it is also the third abundant, but harmless, metal element in a human body. As this metal is recyclable, it has been gathering attention recently in terms of environmental conservation.

  A new titanium alloy, gunmetal, was developed by TOYOTA Central R&D Labs., Inc., and is used for air suspensions for F1 racing. The material trader, NISSEY Co., Ltd., has a distributorship of this metal to other fields except the car industry. Besides eyeglass products, the commercialized ones so far are the crown part of golf clubs, frames of tennis rackets, screws for mobile phones and wires for teeth-straightening devices.

  Collecting the remaining gunmetal materials from each maker after they have taken the necessary amount to make eyeglasses, NISSEY Co., Ltd. Melts the metal again to recycle it as fishing line. Although it is an ultra fine line of only 0.055mm in diameter, the market accepts it positively, for it keeps its strength while fishing and reduces the water resistance.

  It is TANAKA PRODUCTION Co., Ltd. who has released the biodegradable plastic "Corn pad (pad made from poly lactic acid)" which has excellent transparency and strength and is perfectly decomposable in the soil or water thanks to microorganism activities. The company focused on the non-petroleum material made from plants and, collaborated with SHIMADZU Corporation to research and develop the material for nose pads of eyeglasses. As a by-product of this study, pads with excellent heat, impact, and decay resistance as well as an antimicrobial effect were the results.

  But at the beginning of its sales launch, the market response was rather dull except from a few companies. TANAKA PRODUCTION Co., Ltd. has a patent of this material in Japan, United States of America, Germany, France and Italy. Among them Germany showed the most favorable response at that time. Eight years have passed since the launch of its sales in the market. Since then more companies began to raise their environmental consciousness. Environment-friendly products mean to yield human skin-friendly products. Their shipping volume has been increasing year after year.

  The plastic which SHIMADZU Corporation developed shifted its rights and facilities to TOYOTA several years ago. TOYOTA constructed a pilot factory within its Hirose plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture to produce poly-lactic acid plastic, a plant-derived plastic. They are in full-fledged operation now. Naming the plastic "TOYOTA eco-plastic U's (use)", TOYOTA is trying to apply the material not only to car parts but also to all-purpose plastic products.

  Along with this development plan, TANAKA PRODUCTION Co., Ltd. has been aggressively improving "U's" in terms of manufacturing and forming technologies to expand its use in demonstration lenses, lens patterns, plastic bags for frames and temple arms. Some may say "Both bags and demonstration lenses are destined to be disposed of anyway", but it is exactly those disposable things that should be made of ecologically ﾐfriendly materials.

  TOYOTA adopted "U's" in their car "RAUM" as car parts for the first time in the world. One is a thermoformed hard board containing an equal mixture of poly-lactic acid and a natural fiber called "Kenaf". And the other is a floor mat which also contains poly-lactic acid. TOYOTA intends to expand the applications of this material to various other parts.

  Putting their key developing theme on "U's", NISSEY Co., Ltd. has been conducting research and development of the material. They have succeeded in composing materials for eyeglasses. And trial frames, too, have been completed with the help of an eyeglass maker.

  Among disposed things, a new material which still has some value was found. It is Sericin which coats silk threads. Containing a natural protein in silk worm cocoons, it has been used to make textiles glossier and have better texture. After washing fabrics in Sericin contained water, the liquid used to be discarded. This task is called "refining". But SEIREN Co., Ltd., a company which dyes and finishes various textile products, noticed that the hands of the workers who had been engaged in this process never got rough or even remained smooth, although they were submerged in a lot of water. Then, the company started the research and development to extract and refine the ultra-pure Sericin from the refined liquid. Now they utilize this substance in cosmetics, underwear, automobile interiors and so forth.

  Focusing on this natural protein, UNIX Co., Ltd., tried to apply the material to eyeglass parts like nose pads or temple tips. According to the trial results, relief from skin roughness or irritation was reported. Furthermore, it is reported to leave less nose pad marks on the wearer's nose and reduce the skin irritations where the eyeglass touches the skin.

  Here we have introduced some companies who have been tackling ecological or environmental issues as their own concerns. They all need a long time to draw visible results. We have a lot of ongoing challenges to tackle while we pursue novel technologies and designs, develop new materials, create new value-added products and so on. There is no attainable goal for eyeglass manufacturing where we can be fully satisfied.

  But apart from an acquisitive viewpoint of business profits, when we see with a macroscopic bird's-eye view, both human-beings and the earth seem to be completely exhausted. As many people thought about the global environment at "Exposition of Global Harmony", we should not get by with avoiding environmental conservation issues in the making of eyeglasses.