Superior Scratch Resistant Coating for Safety Eyewear

描述（由申请人提供）估计90%的眼部伤害是可以通过使用适当的安全眼罩来避免的。我们的长期目标是提高安全眼镜使用的合规性，使其镜片更耐用，更容易清洁，并且比目前可用的更耐刮擦和抗冲击。我们的工作表明，设计良好的多层涂层与润滑面漆可以大大提高抗划伤性，而不会降低塑料基材的抗冲击性。这一假设是基于我们的发现：1)有色面漆会导致颗粒滑落，而不是凿出表面，从而使抗划伤性增加10倍；2)目前所有用于镜片的抗划伤涂层都会降低抗冲击性。我们的具体目标是利用这一发现来增加涂层的抗划伤性，同时修改底层，以防止裂纹扩展到塑料基材中。拟议的涂层将允许生产安全眼镜和眼科镜片，其抗刮擦和抗冲击性能远远优于目前市场上的任何一种。这种镀膜技术将为3.3亿美元的护眼市场和158亿美元的眼镜市场的眼镜用户带来巨大的好处。如果成功，这项工作将广泛适用于其他塑料应用，其中光学清晰度，抗划伤性和抗冲击性是关键要求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) An estimated 90% of all eye injuries are avoidable with the use of proper safety eye protection. Our long-term goal is to increase the compliance in the use of safety glasses with lenses that are more durable, easier to clean, and more scratch and impact resistance than is currently available. Our work indicates that a well-designed multi-layer coating with a lubricous topcoat can greatly increase scratch resistance without degrading the impact resistance of the plastic substrate. This hypothesis is based on our discovery that: 1) the lubricious topcoat will cause particles to glide off rather that gouge the surface resulting in a 10-fold increase in scratch resistance, and 2) all currently available scratch resistant coatings for lenses degrade impact resistance. Our specific aims are to utilize this discovery to increase the scratch resistance of the coating using the lubricious topcoat while modifying the underlying layers to prevent crack propagation into the plastic substrate. The proposed coating will allow the production of safety glasses and ophthalmic lenses with a combination of scratch and impact resistance far better than any currently on the market. This coating technology will be of great benefit to eyewear users in the $330 million eye protection market and the $15.8 billion eyewear market. If successful, this work would have widespread applicability in additional plastic applications where optical clarity, scratch resistance, and impact resistance are key requirements.