With the SYRUS coating systems, Bühler Leybold Optics has more or less mastered the art of coating to perfection. It's essential that the high-performance unit does not fail: it must reliably deliver the coating results 24 hours a day, and this is what makes the quality of the ZEISS lenses so unique. The blue reflex color of the ZEISS glasses requires coating thickness accuracy down to the nanometer – these are just a few atom layers on top of each other.
For over 10 years, ZEISS has been so satisfied that Bühler is one of their preferred suppliers and the SYRUS system is used in all of the spectacle lens manufacturer's production sites. "For us, Bühler is not just a supplier, but really a partner," Haidl explains. After all, it is not just the technologies and machines, but ultimately the people who ensure that the research and development work actually ends up on the lens in an efficient industrial process. "And for this, we consider Bühler a reliable partner that shows a great deal of initiative," says Haidl.
Trust on both sides also plays a crucial role here. "We need to ensure that the results we achieve with prototypes can be reliably reproduced in mass production," says Matl. This requires close coordination between ZEISS and Bühler, especially in particular situations. For the transfer of a newly developed, functional coating such as ZEISS DriveSafe, it is also necessary to develop new technologies and coating standards – parts of the innovation process that must be mastered together.