Crystal clear. Pilla lenses are free of imperfections.

HEAD TO HEAD: US VS. THEM

The Pilla Advantage starts with a superior manufacturing process where our lenses are not stressed by heat, cooling, or pressure. If you have a polycarbonate lens in your sports eyewear you have a lens with less optical clarity. See the advantage of Ballistx from Pilla.

Constructing a Pilla Lens

Pilla lenses are shaped in a perfectly polished glass mold using zero pressure and no heat. The optimal situation for a perfect lens.

Constructing a Polycarbonate Lens

Polycarbonate lenses suffer from manufacturing deficiencies as a result of extreme heat, high pressure, injection molding and quick cooling, which all contribute to distortion.

BALLISTX

POLYCARBONATE

STEP ONE: Our Ballistx lens material starts as a liquid not a solid. What this means is the material has not had any stress imposed on it from heat to make the liquid.

STEP ONE: Polycarbonate arrives to the manufacturing facility as a solid (Polycarbonate in a hardened state). High heat is applied to the hardened polycarbonate to turn the material into a liquid.

Basic chemistry dictates that when you move a solid to a liquid you have changed the molecular structure… This translates to stress on the material.

STEP TWO: Pilla Performance Eyewear uses casting with glass molds in manufacturing our state-of-the-art lenses. Glass molds allow us to perfectly polish the surface of the molds so the lenses do not have any imperfections. The net result of a perfectly polished mold is light is not bent when it hits the lens surface. There is no refraction to distort the image.

STEP TWO: Once Polycarbonate is turned into a liquid under high heat, the liquid is forced under extreme pressure into a metal mold. This contributes to haze and distortion.

STEP THREE: Ballistx lens material is poured into the glass molding cast under ZERO pressure and NO heat and NO thermal or linear expansion to introduce distortion. This creates a molding situation with no part of the process stressing the material. This again provides the optimal situation for a lens without distortion.

STEP THREE: The use of metal molds is a contributing factor in further heightening the distortive nature of a polycarbonate lens as the surfaces of the lens are not perfect. Metal molds cannot be polished fine enough to produce surface without fissures. Further distortion is introduced into the polycarbonate lens by the use of metal molds by what is called “linear expansion”, which is the rapid expansion and contraction of the metal due to rapid temperature changes. These small imperfections of the molds are transferred directly to the front and back of the lens surfaces. You cannot see these with the naked eye, though when light hits the surface of the lens it does not go perfectly through the lens. Light is bent in many directions, called refractions, creating a fuzzy and hazy visual experience.

STEP FOUR: WE WAIT… Ballistx lenses take over 1 day to cure. This is a critical step of the process which is again completely different from Polycarbonate production. This slow curing process of the lens produces no stress on the material. Additionally, the hardening of the lens is extremely strong given the molecular structure is not forced to cool quickly.

STEP FOUR: Once the polycarbonate is forced into the metal mold under extreme pressure, the material is flash cooled. This process takes less than a second. Basic chemistry again tells us that when a solid is quickly cooled it creates stress on the material. Additionally, the polycarbonate material, even though it is cooled very quickly, does not do so uniformly across the entire lens. This again translates to distortion in the lens material. Extreme heat and a second to cool lead to maximum stress during the manufacturing process.

Every step of our manufacturing process to make a Ballistx lens is focused on producing the very best distortion free lenses on the market.

The process of Polycarbonate lens manufacturing yields 40,000 LENSES in the time that it takes for Pilla Performance Eyewear to make one lens.

No shortcuts. Pilla lenses are cast in glass molds without the use of heat or pressure.

Polycarbonate deficiencies. Metal molds cannot be polished fine enough to produce perfect surfaces.

See the Difference for Yourself