The Manufacturing Process of Sunglasses

Are you in the business of selling sunglasses? If you run a small to mid sized ecommerce venture or store, then there is a very good chance that you are. Sunglasses – specifically inexpensive wholesale sunglasses – are an extremely popular choice for general inventory.

And if you have already invested in a bulk order of designer sunglasses for your outlet, then you might well be wondering how such practical, fashionable, and high-quality products can be sold so cheaply per unit? There are several reasons for this, and one of the most important is the manufacturing process.

Materials vs Manufacturing

When any product is made, there are two cost considerations. There are the materials required for the product, and there is the manufacture and assembly of the product itself. If either of these can be sourced cheaply, then the product can be sold cheaply.

The materials involved in creating a pair of sunglasses are nearly always glass, metal, and plastic (sometimes only the last two if the lenses are plastic). Within these three materials there are many different kinds, conferring different properties on the sunglasses.

Each of these materials goes into the making of the three main parts of a pair of sunglasses, the frames, the lenses, and the temple. The materials used for this can be cheap or expensive, but the manufacturing process is nearly always relatively low cost. This is precisely how sunglasses can often be inexpensive yet high quality, which is the case with many bulk designer sunglasses made by companies like Olympic Eyewear and others.

A Word About Bulk Sunglasses

The affordable manufacturing process is precisely why high-quality sunglasses can be sold inexpensively, normally coming in bulk orders. However, where sunglasses are concerned, these bulk orders can come in many assorted styles, which is made possible by the inexpensive manufacturing process.

For the majority of businesses selling sunglasses, these bulk orders are normally where the sunglasses come from. It is only where brand name sunglasses are sold that this is not the case.

Accordingly, affordable materials and an affordable manufacturing process combine to offer the maximum of variety at a very reasonable price. This is precisely why bulk sunglasses are a solid choice for supplementing any inventory – they are cheap, diverse, and they sell well.

The Manufacturing Process

So, what actually is this manufacturing process? Well, the design itself is downloaded from a computer.  Here follows the major steps after that:

The Steel Mold

The steel mold, or die, is the basis of a pair of sunglasses. It is created to match the desired shape, specifically, of the frames. With sharp edges, the frame is cut out of the metal like a cookie from a sheet of dough.

Sheets of Plastic

Next comes to the plastic component for the lens. This is originally a sheet of cellulose-acetate, made into sheets slightly wider than the frames.

Punching of the Blank Frames

To mold the frames of the glasses from the plastic, the plastic is heated in an oven until it becomes malleable. They are then punched with the die to create the frames.

Removal of Excess Plastic

A relatively straightforward stage, the lens space is cut out of the mold to create a space for the lenses.

Smoothing Out and Lens Insertion

Then, the separately made lenses are added to the frames. But first, a groove needs to be cut in the inner edges of the frames in order to hold the lens securely.

And that is all there is to it. It might sound high-tech and complex, but this process can be repeated thousands of times within a short period. And there’s your inexpensive designer sunglasses.