Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians
Production
Machines are set to cut, grind, polish, bevel, edge, or coat a lens once the blank is locked in a chuck or holding tool. After machining, lenses are inspected, weighed, and measured to check alignment, surface smoothness, coating thickness, and flaws. Finished lenses and eyeglasses are cleaned with cloths and solvents, shaped to sit in a frame, then mounted and aligned with hand tools. Prescriptions, work orders, or broken eyeglasses are read to set what the new lenses must match. A better match for people who prefer setting up precision machines, measuring small optical pieces, and seating lenses in frames.
Typical education: High School Diploma or GED
Annual Median Wage in Field (2025)
$39'460
Median Wage Market Position
$39'460
What you might do
- Read prescriptions and orders for lens specs
- Clamp lens blanks into grinding and polishing machines
- Grind, bevel, and polish lenses to prescription
- Edge lenses so they fit the frames
- Mount and align finished lenses in frames
- Inspect finished lenses for flaws and correct size
Skills that matter
- Setup of grinding and polishing machines
- Flaw inspection of lens blanks
- Thickness and coating checks
- Precision measuring of finished lenses
- Edging lenses to fit frames
- Mounting and aligning lenses in frames
AI & the future of this role
Lens cutting, grinding, and edging are already highly automated, and software-guided machines could take over still more of the routine optical processing. Assembly and quality checks remain, but the core fabrication path is fairly exposed to further automation.
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Includes O*NET® 30.3 Database information by USDOL/ETA under CC BY 4.0; modified by LostInCareer. Wage/outlook from BLS. Attribution details