Why Are Optical Silicone Lenses So Expensive?

Optical silicone lenses, also called LSR silicone lenses, are made of optical-grade liquid silicone and formed by LSR injection molding. They can be used for automotive lighting, commercial lighting, backlighting, etc. We learned from some customer that most people don't understand why the price of optical lens is more expensive than the price of PMMA lens? Next, the editor will answer to you, and explain the reasons for the high price of optical silicone lenses from two aspects: mold cost and product unit price.

The Reason Why The Unit Price Of Optical Silicone Lens Products Is Expensive?

1. Optical silicone lens is a new product and cannot learn from industry experience

Optical silicone lenses started in 2018, because of the demand for the use of automotive ADB adaptive high beams, which drove the market procurement demand. The mold design and manufacture of the optical silicone lens, product molding equipment and molding technology are completely different from injection molding, and it is impossible to learn from the experience of traditional PC, PMMA and other industries.

2. The initial investment cost of optical silicone lens is high

The investment threshold for mold processing equipment, molding equipment, and testing equipment for optical silicone lenses is very high, and companies engaged in traditional silicone manufacturing cannot understand the actual quality requirements of such optical products. Based on the above status quo, there are very few domestic companies that truly have a complete development and production supply chain for such products, and the main manufacturers are still concentrated in Germany, Austria and other European countries. With the production demand of major auto lighting companies in the world and in China, the supply of ADB silicone automotive lenses also needs to be shifted from foreign procurement to local procurement in China to shorten the procurement cycle and reduce procurement costs.

3. The raw material of optical silicone lens is expensive

Most of the optical-grade liquid silicone raw materials currently used in optical silicone lenses are imported from abroad, such as: Dow Corning, Wacker, Momentive, etc., and the import price is at least RMB 380/kg.

Why Are Optical Silicone Lens Molds Expensive?

1.The fluidity of silicone is better than that of plastic injection molding, so the processing accuracy of optical silicone lens molds is two levels higher than that of precision plastic injection molds.

2. Optical silicone lenses require high transparency and have extremely high requirements for surface polishing, the mold making equipment we used are: TOYO High Precision Drilling Machine, Makino High Speed CNC V33i, Okamoto Precision Automatic Grinding Machine acc64dx, CNC Machine JDHGT600, Grinder JL-618, EDM EDGE3, Wire Cutting Machine ALN400Q(s) and so on.

3. The mold material of our optical silicone lens is S136 stainless steel, the service life of the mold is 1 million mold times, and we will create the mold for free after the mold expires.

At present, China's optical silicone lens companies are divided into three categories:

1. Represented by Hopewell, it has the ability to design and manufacture optical silicone lens  molds, to automate mass production according to the quality requirements of customers, and to supply optical silicone lenses in batches for well-known domestic and foreign companies.

2. Silicone factories with small enterprise specifications have a small number of imported molding equipment and basic silicone molding technology, but they do not have the ability to design and manufacture optical silicone lens molds. They mainly rely on customers to provide molds, or third-party entrusted processing molds, mold capabilities and quality cannot be guaranteed, and there is no supporting optical inspection equipment and capabilities.

3. Transformed from a traditional PMMA injection molding lens company to a factory producing optical silicone lenses, newly invested in a small number of molding equipment, with the ability of optical inspection, but lack of experience in mold design and manufacturing of optical silicone lenses, resulting in development and manufacturing costs relatively high.

If you are interested in optical silicone lenses, please feel free to contact us, thanks.