Someone had to take anti-reflective coating to the next level. Who better than the company that invented it? For more than 150 years, Carl Zeiss advanced innovation and German technology has been the top choice of the world's leading doctors, researchers, and engineers. Now, this same innovation and technology has produced the world's most advanced coating -- Carat Advantage.

A dramatically different coating

Carat Advantage consists of Zeiss Foundation hard coating, Super ET AR, and a new advanced hydrophobic coating. Its properties are derived from a family of chemicals classified as "super-hydrophobic coatings" that ensure durability and cleanability.

In the past with traditional AR, fluid and dirt particles gathered on the lens surface. With the smooth top coat of Carat Advantage, fluid and dirt roll off the lens, making it easier to clean. Carat Advantage offers the traits that you and your patients want most: Easy care and wearing comfort.

Confident choice

You can offer Carat Advantage to your patients with extreme confidence because it enhances the quality and expands the lifetime of lenses by providing scratch resistance, superior AR performance, durability, and resistance to dirt and water. The result is incredibly strong lenses that are easy to clean and easy to wear.

Features and benefits of the Carat Advantage package

Carat Advantage fulfills your patients' need for a lens that is unmatched in durability, clarity, and above all, ease of cleaning. Carat Advantage is the best choice for those who don't want anything to get in the way of perfect vision.

High ratings for scratch-resistance ensure lenses with Carat Advantage are tough when it comes to fending off scratches. Now dropping, rubbing, and even the most harsh environmental conditions are no longer a concern.

Clear

Increased levels of light transmittance ensure the clearest vision possible. And smudge-resistant AR means that your patients will enjoy improved visual acuity through cleaner lenses while looking better, a cosmetic improvement that anyone can see clearly.

Clean

Super hydrophobic properties help repel water, dirt, dust, fingerprints, and smudges dramatically better than ever before.

Built on a strong foundation

Super tough Zeiss Foundation hard coating is the standard of protection for plastic lenses. Foundation offers outstanding adhesion and durability and remarkable scratch-resistance. Its dip coating process ensures an identical coating on front and back of the lens, enhancing durability. Foundation is available as a super hard coating by itself or as part of the Carat Advantage package.

Zeiss AR technology shines

Zeiss AR coatings help diminish glare, enabling patients to see better. The coatings also get rid of reflections that others see in the glasses, enhancing appearance. Other benefits include sharper image contrast, increased eyewear comfort, and improved safety while driving at night.

Super hydrophobic coating tops it off

Carat Advantage repels water, dirt, dust, fingerprints, and smudges dramatically better than ever. The strong, super hydrophobic top layer of Zeiss Carat Advantage is applied utilizing a completely new, state-of-the-art technology that provides one of the highest-rated hydrophobic coatings available today.

Magic with mirrors

Carat Advantage can be further enhanced with Zeiss mirror coatings. Offered in Cool Silver, Cool Blue, or Cool Gold for a fun, fashionable, and unique look, they are available on all plano and prescription lenses. Stylish, but strong, they feature Foundation, Zeiss AR, and the new super hydrophobic coating.

Carat Advantage was rigorously tested and compared to competitive coatings. Carat Advantage proved to be an excellent performer through rigors such as the Ease of Cleaning Test and Real Life Simulation Test from COLTS Laboratories.

COLTS Laboratories' Ease of Cleaning Test, simulates cleaning by putting the lens surface through 100 wiping cycles. Then, a piece of tape is attached to the lens. Less force required to remove the tape means better hydrophobic properties. As shown here, Carat Advantage outperforms the competition.

COLTS Laboratories' Real Life Simulation Test uses five tests, AR Cloth Rub, luminous transmittance and haze evaluations, the Tumble Test, and the CHOCA test, to determine the strength of coatings. Carat Advantage scores higher than others in the field.

Similar to the COLTS test, this internal Cotton Cloth Rub Test simulates two years of cleaning the center of each lens with a cotton cloth. Contact Angle is measured before and after. While other coatings wear off, Carat Advantage remains in excellent condition.

Carat Advantage is everywhere

AR is particularly useful in augmenting comfort during day-to-day activities. In the office, on the computer, or even on the road, Carat Advantage helps patients see better -- and look better.

At the office

At the office, the positive impact of AR is two-fold.

• Productivity is improved. Applying AR reduces annoying reflections and glare, reducing strain on the visual system and eliminating time-consuming distractions.
• Comfort is boosted. Better lenses improve the wearer's ability to work more comfortably and efficiently.

On the road

AR improves safety by allowing the driver to recognize potential hazards on the road, especially at night.

• Reflections of street lamps and headlights are virtually eliminated, making the road and terrain more visible.
• Less glare also means that drivers experience less visual fatigue, helping them to stay more alert and better able to identify details, such as small road signs.

At your practice

There are more than 240 Carat Advantage-approved lenses available today, and more lenses are being added to that list on a regular basis.

Zeiss offers the Carat Advantage Approved Lens List, and will update eyecare professionals as well as the optical marketplace as lenses are approved. You can visit the website www.zeiss.com/lenses for the current list.

To find a Zeiss Partner Lab near you, visit the Zeiss website, www.zeiss.com/lenses, and use the Partner Lab Locator tool. Consumers can visit www.zeiss.com/lenses to find the ECP most convenient to them by clicking on the Certified Zeiss Vision Experts database and using the Find an Expert Near You tool.

Top ECP tips for positioning and selling premium AR

Eyecare professionals prefer to sell and dispense Carat Advantage premium coating for a myriad of reasons. To name a few: It can be sold for a higher price, it assures patient satisfaction with easy cleanability and more durability, and patients are more likely to refer friends and family to the practice and return themselves.

These dedicated ECPs share some of their secrets to success with AR.

Knowledge is power

Tom Buell of Tom's Sportique Eyewear in Boulder, Colo., sells 90 percent AR by educating all patients on the benefits of AR. He notes: "Because the old problems of durability and smudges are gone, the quality of AR has greatly improved and can help satisfy patients."

The members of his staff also wear AR lenses and point that fact out to all patients.

What you see is what you get

With AR sales at 75 percent, Mike Stack of Blaine Eye Clinic in Blaine, Minn., says show and tell involves manufacturer-supplied demos and more. His most effective presentation: "Put a fingerprint on a premium AR lens, and simply wipe it off. Then assure the patient that his or her AR lenses will be exactly the same way."

Looks can sell

Talking with patients about both the cosmetic and visual advantages of AR has helped Linda Harrison of Laguna Eyes Optometry in Laguna Beach, Calif., build up to 70 percent AR sales. And when her staff wears AR, people see how the AR gets rid of reflections that others see in your glasses, enhancing vision and appearance. Harrison observes: "It really allows patients to see the difference between a regular lens and an AR lens, and they appreciate AR more because of it."

ECP Advantage with Carat Advantage

Zeiss offers a Carat Advantage training seminar for eyecare professionals and laboratories. Credit education course information, details on other education, plus a schedule of education events, and other ways eyecare professionals can learn about how to take advantage of Carat Advantage to boost the bottom line and ensure patient satisfaction are available by contacting Carl Zeiss. Carl Zeiss Optical, Inc.USA 1-800-338-2984

CAN 1-800-268-6489

www.zeiss.com/lenses

MI 8767 Carat Advantage is a registered trademark of Carl Zeiss Optical, Inc.