OLA honors 2006 Awards of Excellence winners

The OLA Awards of Excellence are presented for the year's top frame and lens design products, optical laboratory equipment, and other relevant systems. Winners received the highest number of votes cast by the chief executive officers of more than 500 OLA member laboratories.

During the president's banquet Nov. 11, Steve Sutherlin, OLA's immediate past president, presented the OLA Directors' Choice Award to Mike Daley, chief operating officer, Essilor of America Lens Division. This award is OLA's highest honorary award for individuals, companies, or organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the ophthalmic industry.

Among the winners of the 2006 OLA Awards of Excellence:

Finishing equipment-7EA Edge, National Optronics

Lens design-Creation, Shamir Insight Inc.

Lens materials-Life Rx (Poly Photochromic), Vision-Ease Lens

Lens treatment equipment-RLC Robotic Lens Coater, Ultra Optics Inc.

Processing materials and tools-BlueEdge Edging Pad, DAC Vision

Safety frames-Snake Eyewear SW02, Titmus Optical Inc.

Specialty frames-Mount Sunwear Model 101, Tuscany Eyewear

Surfacing equipment-VFT-Compact Generator, Satisloh North America

The award for dress frames resulted in a three-way tie between Model JS151 by Eyewear Designs Ltd., Totally Rimless Technicolors (style TR125) by The McGee Group, and Stetson 701 Zylo-flex by Zyloware Corp.

The OLA conference is billed as the world's largest equipment and materials show exclusively for optical laboratories.