In the eyewear industry, temple shapes, decorations, patterns, and designs are incredibly diverse, and manufacturing techniques vary from maker to maker. This article focuses on one such technique, with emphasis on its production process and the tools used.
The overall shape of a temple can be straight or curved; this article discusses the type whose end is twisted. The temple shown in Figure 1 has been twisted 4.5 turns, forming 9 nodes (the ends also have nodes, though they are not clearly visible in the photo). The number of nodes is calculated as follows: final visual node count = number of turns × 2. The principle is roughly this: one full rotation is 360°, and every 180° of rotation forms one node; 180° is equivalent to flipping a pen over once, while 360° means flipping it over twice; therefore, 4.5 turns corresponds to 9 nodes.
Figure 1 Eyewear temple twisted 4.5 turns
In the past, a manual device was used, requiring a person to turn the handle by hand, which was relatively laborious, as shown in Figure 2. Human effort has its limits, and costs rise accordingly, while efficiency suffers greatly due to fatigue: when production volume is low, it is manageable, but once the volume is large, delivery times are easily delayed.
Figure 2 Manual twisting device
To address this, our factory's technical team created an optimized, iterated version (the manual device was also made by this technical team). The core of the design is the use of an electric motor and a control chip to achieve precise control, greatly improving efficiency while saving labor, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Electric twisting device
The machine has two startup modes: manual startup, and automatic startup triggered by a pressure button that senses when an item has been placed in position. After setting the force, number of turns, and rotation speed, a sample must be used for testing and machine adjustment; only then can stable operation be maintained in subsequent use.
From manual to electric, every improvement to the tool comes from constant trial and error and repeated reflection. The same is true for a factory: when facing problems, pooling ideas, and applying industry knowledge and experience to achieve breakthroughs from 0 to 1 is the only way to sustain development.