"Life is magical, you just have to see it through the right glasses"

More than 950 million people worldwide suffer from correctable refractive errors. They would need glasses but can't afford them or don't have access to optical care at all. The consequences: Children can't learn well, adults can't hold skilled jobs or even work at all, and they can't feed their families. The resulting global income loss is more than $269 billion annually, according to a 2019 WHO study.
Since its founding in 2012, OneDollarGlasses has been dedicated to solving this problem: Starting with the construction of a simple bending machine for eyeglass frames by founder Martin Aufmuth, the association has grown to more than 280 employees in currently 10 program countries, 35 permanent employees and a large number of volunteers in Germany, who pursue the goal of providing basic optical care for all people worldwide. In addition to the supply of glasses, eye tests and the training of local and training of local staff, as well as educational work and international networking with partners.
Today, the glasses are produced in Africa, Latin America and Asia and the quality standard, must be the same everywhere and, above all, consistent. In order to maintain this quality standard the lenses have to be subjected to random checks within the production and supply chain before the lenses are sent to the project countries.
The material cost of one glasses is around one US dollar, which explains the name of the association. The frame of the glasses is made of a flexible spring steel wire and colorful pearls round off a stylish design. By means of bending machines, glasses of different sizes can be produced. Through a simple modular system plastic lens in strengths from -10.0 to +8.0 diopters can be clicked into the frame with only one hand movement.
Harrandt employee Markus Wöhrbach, deputy head of the development department, became aware of OneDollarGlasses association through a flyer and didn't hesitate for long to get in touch with them. "With such a magnificent project, Harrandt has to be able to contribute his expertise in positive form," Markus said.
Last December, we welcomed Dr. Uwe Schüller and Udo Ulrich, both bending trainers and machine coordinators from OneDollarGlasses at our company. In addition to getting to meet each other personally for the first time, the "how" was the main focus for us. How can we support OneDollarGlasses positively, sustainably and reliably?
During the conversation, it became clear that precision requirements in the hundredths of a millimeter range are placed on the frame and the lenses. With his in-depth technical understanding, Valery Andreas, production manager at Harrandt, was able to demonstrate the possibilities of machining in order to produce so-called lens gauges. Also Dr. Uwe Schüller and Udo Ulrich believed "that the high accuracy requirements in particular can be achieved by Harrandt." Away from the measuring lens testing process, towards teaching testing. With the help of the lens gauges manufactured by Harrandt, time-consuming and error-prone measuring tests can now be replaced. After sending the first manufactured lens gauge sample to OneDollarGlasses, it didn't take long time for reorder of 6 more lens gauges. Since special focus is placed on the manufacturing tolerances for compliance with the quality standards, the lens gauges were 3D measured and recorded. After the measurement results were available, René Freiherr von Künßberg, Head of Optics, Production and Logistics at OneDollarGlasses, said, "all tolerances were met with considerable precision in production, so we can use the gauges for quality assurance."
We are particularly pleased not least with the positive response to the lens gauges, but rather with the perception of Dr. Uwe Schüller and Udo Ulrich, that Harrandt shows deep interest in the work and the product of the association OneDollarGlasses and thereby the long-lasting positive effect in the area of social as well as societal activities of the association wants to support. For the future there is already the perspective of further cooperation. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the OneDollarGlasses association for the trust they have given us as Harrandt.