Why do eyeglasses use screws? They get loose and fall out and then you have to go out of your way to fix them. Sometime optometrists charge $10 to put a 1 cent screw in.
Why not just use a rivet?
Hard to find rivet tongs and hammers that small?
I’m not an engineer but its not the 1600’s. To me, a rivet should be a less expensive process than a screw.
Have you ever tried to remove a blind rivet to repair the glasses?
Instead of changing a lens, or tightening it, etc, you can now scrap the entire pair of glasses.
And rivets can loosen, and no way in your glasses to tighten it its a blind rivet.
Even if it isnt, smashing your glasses in a vice or with a hammer does not sound like a good idea
Not worth retooling an entire industry with a fairly nonstandard connector to save the maybe 1000 consumers a year who can’t use an eyeglass repair kit $10 each?
I think this is it. The lenses are the most expensive part of the eyeglasses. You want to assemble the eyeglasses so you can replace broken parts of the frame if needed.
I was going to say “Why can’t the OP use an eyeglass repair kit like the rest of us?”
Exactly. There are plenty of hingeless designs out there for people who don’t want to deal with hinges. No reason to re-invent the hinge when all the standard screw hinge parts are cheap and readily available.
When my previous pair of glasses lost a screw, I fixed them by sticking a paper clip in the screw-hole and wrapping it around. It looked fine (most people never noticed it), and it never came loose again.
I suppose that if I ever needed to open it up, to replace a lens or something, I’d probably have to destroy the paper clip, but hey, it’s a paper clip.
EDIT: Ornery Bob, who said anything about the hinges? We’re talking about the screw.
Eyeglass frame hinges pivot on a tiny eyeglass screw. It’s a valid consideration.
In my glasses, the hinge that allows the side pieces to fold is held together with a screw that also acts as the pivot post for the hinge. I assumed this is the screw in question. If you eliminate the hinge, you eliminate the screw problems the OP is talking about.
There are also hinge designs that don’t use the simple “screw as post” and never work themselves apart.
The “screw as post” design is cheap and easy and that’s the whole point. If the screw falling out is a problem, get glasses that don’t use them.
Use Loctite and never lose a screw.
Doesn’t need a blind rivet, just go all the way through both parts. A rivet can be removed, just grind off the head or drill it out. But it will be more difficult to repair, can’t adjust the tightness of the joint, and it would destroy the eyeglass repair kit industry.
Pretty sure I’ve seen riveted sunglasses some time in the past. But I don’t wear glasses, and pair of sunglasses lasts me less than a week before they dematerialize, so I don’t have much data to draw on.
This. Unless you’re actually legally blind and just can’t see without the glasses at all, or you’re an upper-para- or quadriplegic, it takes all of 10 seconds to use the little screwdriver in one of those mini eyeglass repair kits that they sell at pretty much every general retail store in the country.
If you are in the UK and lose the screw, pop into any optician and they will almost certainly repair it free of charge.
Same in France. However, I usually give them a tip anyway. Never seen a “repair kit”, presumably for this reason.
Some eyeglass screws are blind, hinges sometimes are sometimes are not, depends on frames.
Even if rivet was not blind, like you said you have to drill or grind a tiny rivet, and not damage the frame, probably needs more skill than the typical person at the eyeglass counter.
And as you said, adjusting tightness kind of goes out the door.
One tap too many and Yep it’s tight alright.
Sunglasses are usually kind of considered disposable, the off the shelf things anyways.
There are lots of dumb things about the way glasses are made. I attribute most of them to the fact that the manufacturers of glasses all belong to a deeply secret society which prohibits them from thinking even a little bit about making glasses that work better.
My biggest peeve: despite having computer controlled lens grinders for decades now, it is still not possible to buy a pair of bifocals, made so that the wearer can MOVE THEIR EYES left to right, instead of turning their head side to side.
Single focus lenses have long been made so that the entire lens area is useful, but anyone who needs more than one focus, has to learn to do the “robot head.”
I’ve never had problems with the hinge screw. It’s always the lens screw that can be problematic, and that one makes the most sense. You want to be able to tighten around the lens.
Sure, the hinge screw may get a bit loose, but that doesn’t really affect my ability to wear the glasses. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had one actually fall out. Except if the frames were damaged.
The lens screw also only gets loose, but that can be problematic because the lens can pop out. I’ve had to get new glasses over that, if the lens pops out in an inopportune location. It’s why I always keep at least one backup pair (i.e., my previous glasses).
Every schoolboy knows eyeglasses were invented in Italy during the late 13th century, however they seemed to perch at first. I would guess tiny screws didn’t come into the equation until the 17th century ( when coincidentally the Germans ruled frame-making ).
And speaking of Germans, here’s a firm that makes screwless glasses, if you need them: OVVO Optics
**OVVO Optics has been present in the U.S. since March 2011. Its history, however, goes back to Europe of the Cold War era. That’s when a group of scientists, who were working on developing a material for spacecraft and military use, fused surgical steel and titanium, achieving an exceptionally light, durable and flexible material that is also hypoallergenic. Inspired by its remarkable qualities, in 1980 the engineers of the company started using this unique composite to make frames for glasses. They are handmade, but manufactured with outstanding precision, mastered by over 30 years of experience. Entirely produced in Germany and Poland, OVVO frames bring exquisite European style and unmatched quality.
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**Weighing barely 0.6 ounces OVVO frames offer unparalleled comfort and unfailing durability. Tests showed that stretched flat frames can hold up to 90 pounds without breaking or wrecking. Virtually indestructible and highly flexible is also OVVO Optics-patented screw-free hinge that can withstand more than 300,000 rotations (an equivalent of 205 years of usage) and reveal no changes in structure or appearance.
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*OVVO Optics’ eyewear is 100% manufactured in family-owned plants in Europe, where each frame goes through 65-85 steps before it is complete. First, using German engineered laser technology the frames are cut out from raw steel sheets imported from Sweden. Then, they pass through the various stages of hand-manufacturing. With great precision and attention to detail the frames are hand-polished, painted, decorated and assembled by a crew of 250 dedicated eyewear production experts. At each phase, they are inspected with care for highest quality assurance.
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The end product is a flawless piece of art, sophisticated, comfortable, durable and flexible.
OK.