A few months back the people at Randolph Engineering, Inc. got in touch with me and inquired if I would be interested in discussin the company’s products on The Fine Young Gentleman. I was not only interested about Randolph Engineering because I have liked their products but I had also heard nothing but good things about the company and its products until that point (including its collaboration with Michael Bastian) so I obliged. At first I was thinking we would do some form of a product review, but upon doing some research and talking with the brand I asked if I could visit their production facility in Randolph, Massachusetts where they manufacture over 90% of its products. They were nice enough to oblige.
Before we get into the production of the glasses I think it would be prudent to give a little background on Randolph Engineering. Randolph Engineering was started in 1972 by two Polish immigrants Jan Waszkiewicz (Chairman of the Board and Co-founder) and Stanley Zaleski (Co-Founder) who worked together as machinists at another eyewear factory. Although they were producing machinery and other optical products beginning in 1972, it wasn’t until 1978 that they made their first sunglasses using the machinery they had developed. In 1982 Randolph got its first military contract – it was to provide the standard issue sunglasses for Air Force pilots (cue thoughts of Top Gun, Tom Cruise pre-scientology meltdown and Danger Zone). Although Randolph Engineering no longer has that contract it does provide standard issue sunglasses for Naval aviators and Army helicopter pilots.
Commercial sales are currently between 50-55% of sales and the rest is made up of military contracts and private label work. Randolph Engineering aims to increase sales by 30-40%, per year over the next 5 years. To support aggressive growth plans and an increase in demand, Randolph is building infrastructure to ensure it can continue to deliver high quality products to its customers. In the last 18 months alone they have hired 24 new people, a testament to the company’s growing international reputation. Looking forward they want to introduce 8 new styles in the coming year. This past year Randolph introduced 4.
I was fortunate enough to be guided through Randolph Engineering’s factory by Mary Waszkiewicz (grand-daughter) and Richard Zaleski (son), relatives of the two co-founders. However, there are numerous other family members from both families also working at Randolph. It is very much a family business. We went through every step of production and finishing. To be honest, previous to this visit I never really thought about the process to make a pair of glasses, especially metal framed ones. But this former apathy allowed me to absorb everything I saw and heard as a blank slate. Not to sound too much like a kid, but it was really, really, really cool.
The tour started at what I will call the frame cutter but Richard called an eye winding machine. Essentially the machine bends and cuts the frame for the lenses from a spool of wire.
The frame outlines for each frame Randolph makes.The frames are screwed together.Each lens frame then goes through a series of soldering steps. First, the temple hinge bracket is attached and then the bridge pieces are attached. As a side note, Randolph has a proprietary ‘flux’ which is a water and cleaning agent solution, it serves to clean the area where the soldering happens. Each template is used for only a single solder location and all of the fixtures are custom built by Randolph Engineering; going back to its roots as a machinist shop.
Cut and bend bridge pieces themselves
Frame set for Army helicopter pilots. Note how one lens is smaller, that is to allow for certain helmet mounted displays.Randolph Engineering uses two types of soldering. Resistance soldering (electricity heats up the metal) and induction soldering (a high frequency in the air generates heat, there is no touching with the metal). Although both serve the same purpose to bond things together each is better for a certain type of solder. Resistance is better for small components and induction is better for wider joints.
This frame is meant to go inside a gas mask or similar apparatus. The two prongs at the bridge insert into a rubber piece inside the masks that hold them in place. The EMT in me wondered if there is a way my company can work some Randolphs into our uniforms and gear, as Randolph does do OEM gear for companies and emergency service providers like EMS and fire.Like thus.
Randolph Engineering offers a lifetime warranty on its solder joints. The joints will never break. The wire of the frame will break before the solder joints. Rich thought it prudent to show me just how strong the joints are.Note the still in tact solder joints.The average span of employment is around 11 years. A majority of the factory workers are of Polish and Vietnamese descent.The wall of frames. Both current and old models are displayed here as a sort of hall of fame of frames.
Buffing wheels are used to polish the arms of the sunglasses.
Ceramic stone is used to polish the lens frames. I don’t know how, but the ceramic stones polish the metal. And for matte frames plastic stones are used.Randolph Engineering buys its polycarbonate lenses from Carl Zeiss Vision, the lenses come in round tips of spheres and is machined down using this machine to fit the frame it is supposed to fit into.
The temple frames are bent as needed.
Temple frames are bent as needed, ear pads are added and the polished frames and lenses are combined to finish the sunglasses.The ear pads are added to each individual pair, as needed.
The lenses are inserted into the frames and the temple arms are screwed into place. The glasses are nearly completed.The various packaging arrangements. Each pair of glasses comes with a case, screwdriver, cleaning cloth and extra set of nose pads. Which, if you are like me you will find this very convenient as nose pads and glasses screwdrivers never seem to be easily accessible.The final step is the quality control. Every pair of Randolph Engineering glasses and sunglasses go through a quality control inspection to check, among other things, things like frame size and shape, symmetry of nose pads, consistent polish.Randolph has the ability to reverse engineer a frame from a photo or other pair of glasses.The machine shop at Randolph is a pretty cool place. A mix of new, old and older.
So, there you have it. Some of, if not the, finest sunglasses made here in our country, The United States Of America.
Thank you for the inspirational article! RE are a hero of “Made In America” glasses!