Cribbing (CRIB) and Elliptical Cribbing (ELLH)

Owned by Tony LeBlanc
Last updated: Jul 23, 2020 by Pat Gauvin
5 min read

Cribbing tells a generator to reduce the blank size while keeping the round blank shape.  This is to make a lens, once its surfaced, easier to manage in the edging devices.

Elliptical cribbing tells a generator to crib a lens in an oval, rather than round, shape.  This can be beneficial in reducing the thickness at the crib edge on high plus jobs, and reducing problems cutting into the soft tool on modern polishers.

Cribbing (CRIB)

The amount of cribbing that a blank requires is determined by the various calculators.  When a generating device asks for CRIB, the value of the crib sent is determined by the "Cribbing Allowance" settings in the device parameters screen.

The cribbing allowance is added to the calculated crib and sent to the device.  If the calculated crib plus the allowance is less than the 'Minimum Diameter" setting, then the "Minimum Diameter" is sent as the crib value.   

The Crib value can be suppressed if so desired.  When it is suppressed, the value of cribbing sent to the device will be zero.  The only exception to this would be if the order is for a digital lens style, and the device parameters, "Digital" tab has its "Send blank diameter as CRIB when CRIB=0 or is suppressed". 

Cribbing can be suppressed several ways.  there are several checkboxes that control crib suppression,  they are contained in the "Lens Style" maintenance,  "Order" maintenance and "Device parameters" maintenance.   When one of these flags is checked, the crib sent to the device will be suppressed.

Elliptical Cribbing (ELLH)

To use elliptical cribbing (this is the ELLH label in VCA terminology), there are several things that must be set up in Rx-Universe.

Setting system defaults

The system wide defaults for ELLH are located in the System Parameters program, under the “Devices” tab.

ELLH thickness breakpoint is used in the surface calculations to determine if elliptical cribbing is required for the job. The minimum value is 0 millimeters, which means thickness will not be checked (ie ELLH value will not be calculated). 

Any value between 0.1mm and 5.0mm will trigger thickness checks of the cribbed diameter.  Rx-Universe will checking the points of the frame between 30 and 150 degrees and between 210 and 330 degrees.  If the edge thickness at the crib diameter at any of these points is less than the "breakpoint" value, then Rx-Universe will reduce the vertical crib by 0.5mm, until the thickness at the crib point is less than the breakpoint thickness, OR the vertical crib (ELLH) is less than the horizontal crib (CRIB) by the "ELLH maximum difference from", OR the ELLH is equal to the CRIB times "ELLH percentage of crib".

Because of the limits on the size of ELLH relative to CRIB, either in mm or as a percentage, it is possible that the edge thickness of the elliptical crib shape will still fall below the "breakpoint" thickness in some cases (very high plus powers along the vertical combined with small B measurements of the frame).

The next 2 settings can be used together or individually.

ELLH maximum difference from crib  this specifies how much smaller the ELLH diameter can be than the CRIB diameter.  For example, if a value of 5 is entered here, then ELLH can never be smaller than CRIB – 5.

ELLH percentage of crib – this specifies how small the ELLH can be as a percentage of CRIB.  For example, if this is set to 80, then the smallest ELLH possible is CRIB * 80%.

If both of the above limits are used, then the largest of the 2 values becomes the acceptable minimum.

Lens Style setting

ELLH can be suppressed by lens style, similar to cribbing.  One thing to remember is that if cribbing is suppressed, then the ELLH is automatically suppressed. 


Setting up the Device Parameters

The ELLH value on a job can be controlled by VCA device also.  The settings in the device parameters screen , under the  “Generator” tab, allow for more control on an individual device.


For each device you can set the following:

Suppress ELLH when checked, this will prevent sending any ELLH value to this device.  OMICS will send ELLH=?;? instead.

ELLH maximum difference from crib, this value when set operates the same as its matching system parameter, but for this device only.

ELLH percentage of crib, this value when set operates the same as its matching system parameter, but for this device only. 

Both the ELLH maximum and ELLH percentage of crib, operate the same as the system default.  The largest of the resulting values become the acceptable minimum for the device.


Modifying an ELLH value

The ELLH value can be set by the user only on "Uncut no frame" jobs.  This is accomplished via the “F12 Surf opt” button on the order maintenance screen. 

Crib and ELLH suppression can be controlled on each job.  The ELLH value can also be set on an order in the ‘User ELLH” fields.  The User ELLH value will override the device settings (limits) and send the User ELLH to the device. 

The fields “Actual ELLH” and “Actual Crib Diameter” contain the actual values that were sent to a generating device; if these values are changed on the generator device, the device will not send back these new values to these fields in Rx-Universe.

The crib and ELLH values can also be viewed in the “Devices fields” screen.