Founded in 1985 by Stefano Sonzogni and Raffaele Scudeletti, Mei srl has always focused its production on high quality CNC machineries. In the’90es the company entered in the optical field, manufacturing milling edger for sun lens (Sphera). All the biggest sunglasses manufacturers in the world bought a Sphera for their edging department.
During the years the first model Sphera was developed following the customers’ requests and the latest version, SPHERA2PLUS, is been manufactured with the same configuration from 2004.
Later on, at the beginning of the new century, the company was asked to start a new project: an edger for ophthalmic lenses able to cut lenses for sport and wrap frame. This was the chance to enter in the ophthalmic world with a revolutionary edging method. While all manufacturers on the market were using the grinding method in their edger, Mei decided to use the milling process. The result was impressive. Our customers were able to cut any kind of plastic lenses in the most complex form required by the eyewear industry. This new concept gave a dramatic pulse to the business of the sport prescription eyewear, and Mei growth up very quickly thanks to the market penetration capacity of the new edging concept.
The milling process make the machine flexible and also increase the production rate. In this way the glazing department of the optical lab can widen the work possibility, by automating the cutting process. The difference was noticed immediately and the success of the first edger MonoSpheraRX-DD came soon. The first version of the machine was followed by two Double Head versions able to perform two lenses per cycle; the first one, BISPHERA-XDD can cut any kind of edge by using the tools changer with 15 tools, while the DoubleR-XDD, without the tools changer can perform just bevel and groove with high performance (120 lenses per hour – bevel).
This portfolio allowed to introduce the Mei technology in the USA market, where the tendency to concentrate the finishing in big industrial labs is very common. Today Mei machines are installed in the labs of all major lens manufacturer around the world.
Between the most representative clients Mei can list: Carl Zeiss, Essilor, Hoya, Shamir in different labs around the world, and several of the biggest independent edging labs in USA, Europe and Asia.
Aware of the different needs of the market in Europe and Asia (not just industrial labs with high production rate), in 2006 Mei introduced a new edger that fit perfectly for small and medium labs. Using the same technology and the same software, MEI641, the Mei “All in One edger” manual loader, allows to perform the same edge types of the automatic machines, without the cost and the space limitation given by the automatic loading system. A lot of labs with edging department have already taken advantage of the last born edger, and the signals from the market are extremely encouraging for the future.
Mei Srl headquarter is located in Valbrembo (BG) – Italy in an area full of a mechanical entrepreneur. The founders are still running the company: Stefano Sonzogni is the president and technical director, and Raffaele Scudeletti runs the manufacturing. The staff is around forty people, including technical assistant, project assistant, software developers, accountant, salesmen, etc. In September 2007 Mei established a branch in USA (Chicago) in order to better support the growth in the North America market. For the same reason Mei is opening a new branch in Hong Kong to support China and Far East market.
The company philosophy is to innovate working process in the optical field, providing new solutions that allow at the labs, lenses and frames manufacturers to increase their flexibility and production rate, by simplifying the process and reducing production costs.