Of the many different lenses material available only two have the necessary qualities to make prescription safety glasses. They are POLYCARBONATE and TRIVEX lenses.

Polycarbonate Lenses
Safety lenses made from polycarbonate material are extremely tough and resistant to impact. In fact they are more than 40 times more impact resistant than standard plastic lenses. Polycarbonate is lightweight and therefore comfortable to wear. More than 90% of all safety glasses are made with Polycarbonate lenses. It also blocks 100% of the sun’s harmful UV radiation.

Trivex- Solvent Resistant Lenses
TRIVEX also know as TRILOGY sets a new benchmark in eye protection being arguably safer than polycarbonate.

Polycarbonate is very popular; however it does have some disadvantages. Polycarbonate is very sensitive to common solvents such as ACETONE and Alcohol. The slightest contact with these solvents can soften polycarbonate lenses rendering them unsafe. The second disadvantage of polycarbonate is optical clarity. While satisfactory the optical clarity of Polycarbonate is not as good as that of regular optical lenses. It is also more reflective than standard a lens which further reduces image quality. Another problem with Polycarb is that it cannot be thinned down like regular lenses. This can result in thick and heavy glasses. Workers who have a moderate to high spectacle correction may find polycarbonate lenses too heavy to wear.

Trivex / Trilogy vs. Standard Lenses
The two videos below show just how tough Trivex/Trilogy lenses are compared with standard acrylic lenses.      Trivex /Trilogy are also very optically stable and can safely be made thinner than Polycarbonate. It has a lower density than Polycarb- these factors mean lighter thinner and more comfortable safety glasses.

Trivex is relatively unaffected by contact with solvents and even resists highly corrosive liquids including ammonia and hydraulic fluids.  Trivex is light and equally impact resistant to Polycarbonate but has better optical clarity than Polycarbonate. If you think your employees safety glasses will come in contact with any solvents we strongly recommend Trivex lens material as the best option

CR39 Non Safety	Polycarb	Trivex

Fig. 2 - Chromatic Aberration

TRIVEX	POLYCARBONATE

The view through two lenses on Fig 2 demonstrates
How the higher chromatic dispersion of polycarbonate gives rise to image distortion. Trivex gives superior clarity of vision

CLEAR BENEFITS OF TRIVEX
Trivex / Trilogy is an excellent alternative to Polycarbonate as it allows prescription safety glasses to be used for a wider range of industry applications. Workers using solvents can now have better eye protection. Polycarbonate is still very useful as it costs a bit less and comes in a wider range of lens styles delete paragraph

Contact with these solvents can render Polycarbonate safety glasses UNSAFE