“in optics you have a wide variety of cleaning ... -...
Post on 27-Oct-2019
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By Isabel Spangemacher-Fürst
MAFO: How come that Fisa was founded
in1981?
Philippe Vaudeleau: It was founded by three
engineers who worked for the same company
that time. It was an Italian company which filed
for bankruptcy in the late seventies. This
company produced ultrasonic cleaning
machines. One of the three founders was Head
of R&D, one was Head of Engineering and one
was Head of Sales in France. When bankruptcy
was declared, and because they had worked
more or less eight years in the ultrasonic
cleaning industry, they decided to establish
their own company in the market: Fisa.
Today 100 people are working for Fisa all over
the world. Our R&D and manufacturing facility
is located in Italy, serving the different sales
and technical support subsidiaries. The
headquarters is in France, and we have six
subsidiaries in Germany, Spain, France, Italy,
USA and Hong Kong / Shenzhen. We want to
make sure that we do things globally and
locally; that’s why we work with local
management and local staff to bring better
technical support for our local customers than
could an SME or a multinational company.
MAFO: What has changed in the industry since
1981 – is cleaning still cleaning?
Philippe Vaudeleau: A lot has changed! If you
strictly consider the cleaning portion of our
“IN OPTICS YOU HAVE A WIDE VARIETY OF CLEANING APPLICATIONS”
In 1981, a company was founded in France to clean up contaminants of various materials
using ultrasonic cleaning. In the meantime, Fisa is active in various industries – including in
the optics industry: cleaning ophthalmic, sun, and safety lenses and precision optics.
Philippe Vaudeleau has been the president of the company for 14 years and he’s the person to
talk to when it comes to the topics of cleaning and dip-coating. MAFO wanted to find out more
about the topic of 'cleaning spectacle lenses’ and spoke to the Frenchman via Skype.
MAFO INTERVIEW WITH PHILIPPE VAUDELEAU
Interview FISA
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business in the late 70’s and early 80’s, there
were not so many concerns about the
environment or ozone depletion – ‘green
thinking’ was not yet part of our industry in
these days.
In the late 80’s, it started with the Rio protocol
to ban CFC solvents from the cleaning industry.
In the 70’s, most machines used solvents such
as Freon – all the nasty solvents that we don’t
hear about anymore today. CFCs were banned
in the 80’s but some companies decided to keep
using the new generation of solvents, like HCFC
and HFE. At Fisa we decided to go solvent-free
and focused on water-based cleaning processes,
still using ultrasonic as the core technology
for the mechanical action but the key code of
the process itself should be strictly water based.
After that decision, we created a company
named FIMM which specializes in cleaning
agents. This company now has three subsidiaries
in France, Germany and Switzerland.
Since ultrasonic cleaning is always a
combination of chemical and mechanical; the
mechanical part of the cleaning picked up
new technologies over the years. Unlike other
manufacturers, we make our own ultrasonic
equipment. We develop and manufacture
generators and transducers in-house. In the
mid 90’s, we developed new technologies
based on the piezoelectric effect that we call
multi-frequency type transducers and
generators. It allows us to use all the
frequencies between two given frequencies;
that offers us a wide range of frequencies in
the tank at the same time to achieve better
cleaning of lenses. This is particularly
important when it comes to precision cleaning.
MAFO: What kind of industries is Fisa active
in? Is it just the ophthalmic lens industry?
Philippe Vaudeleau: At Fisa we have a niche
market strategy. We are active in four different
markets. The first one is optics, including
ophthalmic, sun, and safety lenses and precision
optics. The second market is medical devices.
The third market is tooling, which means mold
cleaning for foundries, plastics and rubber. The
last one is precision cleaning which applies to
different industr ies l ike avionics and
watchmaking for instance.
Of course for each market we have dedicated
technologies, machines and robots. We try
to approach the markets using our technology,
with specific machines, chemistry and
cleaners to meet the demands of the different
markets.
MAFO: Thinking internationality: Where are
Fisa’s main markets?
Philippe Vaudeleau: It is not easy to answer
that question. We have all the different
subsidiaries and each subsidiary has defined
territories and markets. If I had to name one
region as the main market it is probably
Germany, followed by the USA and then France.
In terms of subsidiary size, number one is
France, followed by Germany and then the
USA.
MAFO: What about Asia?
Philippe Vaudeleau: In Asia, we set up a
company in Hong Kong last year. The revenues
that we have had so far have been generated
through Germany, France and the USA. Of
course we will assign the Asian Pacific Region
to Hong Kong in 2017 while we already have
offices, labs and facilities in Shenzhen.
MAFO: Are there specific machines and fluids
for different lens materials? For example, do you
have to treat CR39 lenses in a different way to
mineral ones?
Philippe Vaudeleau: Yes, absolutely! In optics
you have a wide variety of cleaning applications
and we cover the whole field; beginning with
cleaning glass or steel molds, which is a very
specific cleaning process.
When it comes to the lenses themselves, we
have machines for cleaning after surfacing and
polishing. That cleaning process is also very
different from cleaning the lenses prior to hard
coating or to AR coating, which is not really
a cleaning application but more like surface
activation, so there are different chemicals for
each machine. Sometime there are two cleaning
tanks, sometimes three; each process has its
own machine and chemical process.
MAFO: What about coating?
Philippe Vaudeleau: Our coaters are unique,
because of the environmental and modular
concept of the machines. This we can
accomplish due to the specific automation,
which we manufacture.
For instance, our machines are a kind of puzzle;
you assemble modules together to obtain the
ultimate machine. You choose cleaning, coating
and procurement modules and then you can
add another cleaning module and so on, if you
want to extend your line. You can add one
robot, for instance, to increase productivity,
but based on the same structure of your
machine.
A good example is CC20: this machine can
handle between 100 and 450 lenses per hour,
depending on the ultimate configuration of the
machine. You can keep it very small, with a
limited number of modules for say 100 lenses
per hour. Or you can add more modules to the
same machine to raise your productivity up to
450 lenses per hour.
Once configured, the machine can be extended
– retaining the initial investment and just
complementing it with an additional marginal
investment. This concept is unique and is true
for all the sizes of machines we have.
MAFO: What different types of machines do
you have?
Philippe Vaudeleau: MC stands for Mold
Cleaning, CS for Cleaning after Surfacing, CC
for Cleaning & Coating and CV stands for
Cleaning prior to Vacuum Coating. MC, CS,
CC, CV cover all the needs in the optics industry
for cleaning lenses.
MAFO: What about the MC and MR lines?
Philippe Vaudeleau: MC and MR are machines
for mass production, while CS, CC and CV are
mostly used in Rx-labs. This is true for
ophthalmic optics but, if you have to do with
sun or safety lenses, things are different. Here
we have mass production of lenses using very
large CC machines that can produce up to
10,000 lenses per hour.
MAFO: You offer machines for Rx-labs and
mass production, but what about the really small
ones?
Philippe Vaudeleau: Our latest product is
called ‘FisaLabs One’. It is the first machine
we have developed specifically for small and
Rx-labs. Until now, we had no machine with a
throughput under 50/60 lenses per hour – our
levels of technology were simply too high for
this size of lab. That´s why we decided to
MAFO 1-17 7
FISA Interview
06_Fisa.indd 7 16.01.17 14:50
develop a machine based on a new concept. It
is a cleaning and coating machine but we didn t́
want to call the machine CC. We choose
‘FisaLabs One’ because of the new technologies
we put in it and since it is the first one of its
kind, we added ‘One’.
We integrated a new type of robot, new
ultrasonic generators, a new interface and
created a new environment, to make it unique
compared to other CC machines.
MAFO: When you come up with a new machine
concept, do you sell it worldwide? Or do the
demands in the various markets differ?
Philippe Vaudeleau: In every region we sell
the same machines. That means the same
product line and the same portfolio of machines
and chemistry is available from all our
companies.
MAFO: What have been the most important
developments in the ophthalmic industry over
the past 30 years?
Philippe Vaudeleau: The transition from
mineral to plastic – this was a big change!
When Fisa started, coating machines were
unknown, there were only cleaning machines.
We added the coating portion which then
became a big market. Now this market has
extended even beyond ophthalmics. We do the
same thing for other plastic materials, where
we clean and coat the material. So it opened
up a lot of opportunities.
MAFO: What was the most impor tant
technological development at Fisa over the past
30 years?
Philippe Vaudeleau: In the optical market it
is the multi-frequency ultrasonic technology!
We are still the only one in this market who is
using multi-frequency technology.
When you have just one fixed frequency in
your tank, you cannot ensure that it cleans the
whole surface of the lens. With multi-frequency
you have all the frequencies between 40,000
and 90,000 Hz available in one tank. All the
frequencies in this range with different
wavelengths are being produced at the same
time in the liquid.
The other major change is that five years ago
we introduced a new generation of controllers
for our robots compatible with Industry 4.0. /
AMP 2.0. They are equipped with touch screens
without the need for any programming or
typing, only checking boxes which makes them
very user friendly. All the machines can also
interface with external computers and
supervision systems.
We want to make sure that with the supervision
computer you can do data logging, change values
and set points, etc. – in short: you can see what
is going on in your machine from anywhere and
your machine can talk to its surroundings. That
is the Industry 4.0. / AMP 2.0 concept.
Nowadays we are more developing new software
rather than new hardware – it is the software
that has become important. Other examples: a
Fisa machine can send you text messages or
an email; you can view your machine on your
smartphone and see the uptime of the machine.
There are various plugins called FISA Analyzers
in the machine as well as the FISA Supervision
Ready which can establish a connection to third
parties software.
MAFO: In what way do you expect the industry
change over the next few years?
Philippe Vaudeleau: First of all I think the
big changes will be in lens manufacturer and
the machine manufacturers have to follow them.
Maybe there will be some new players in the
future.
In information technology, everything is
changing so fast these days that it is difficult
to say where we will be in five years’ time.
In optics we are relying more on capital
investment; this means that you need a certain
amount of time to amortize a new machine, so
things are not changing so fast.
One big change that we also see in the industry
in general is lean manufacturing. This, too,
started ten years ago and it has not yet been
established as standard in the optical industry
today. But we are going into that direction: less
and less labor involved, more and more
automation, more and more lean manufacturing.
Today you must be able to offer a machine that
can be connected, that can communicate,
receiving and sending information. You must
be able to switch production, be more reactive
and flexible. This will lead to great change over
the next few years. Today the customer wants
to mix up different machines and here you
must be able to deliver special software to
meet the customers’ demands.
MAFO: Brush cleaning is coming up more and
more. What do you think about it?
Philippe Vaudeleau: Brush cleaning only
covers one specific need: cleaning after
surfacing and polishing.
There are pros and cons like for everything.
This technology creates competition, and
competition is very important to improving
yourself and doing your best.
In terms of lean manufacturing, brush cleaning
is more appealing, but I think ultrasonic can
achieve more consistent results and more
reliable cleanliness than brush cleaning. We
have a lot more flexibility and can provide
more capacity with a lot less floor space than
with a brush cleaning machine. Brush cleaning
requires a lot of space and more energy than
ultrasonic cleaning. So with regard to these
points, ultrasonic cleaning is still better.
MAFO: What will you exhibit at Mido?
Philippe Vaudeleau: At Mido we will exhibit
the FisaLabs One. It will be its official launch
in the market. We have already sold FisaLabs
One machines to specially selected customers
in order to get some feedback.
The other main focus at Mido will be on
Industry 4.0. / AMP 2.0: controllers, software,
plug-ins and so on. We will make a specific
demo on our booth, because we are aware of
the increasing demands of our customer with
regard to Industry 4.0. / AMP 2.0. Today we
can already offer five to six standard plug-ins
and this is still an ongoing process, so we hope
to be able to offer more in the near future.
MAFO: Thank you very much for the interview.
Interview FISA
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