Method and apparatus for contact lens mold filling and assembly

An apparatus for forming contact lenses, wherein front curve mold halves are filled with a hardenable transparent material, such as a polymerizable hydrogel, and back curve mold halves are coupled to the front curve, therein forming a lens. More particularly, the apparatus includes a conveyor for tr...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser:	WANG, DANIEL TSU-FANG, MARTIN, WALLACE ANTHONY, ADAMS, JONATHAN PATRICK, KINDT-LARSEN, TURE, STEVEN, JEFFREY ELDON, WIDMAN, MICHAEL FRANCIS, WALKER, CRAIG WILLIAM, ANDERSEN, FINN THRIGE
Format:	Patent
Sprache:	eng
Schlagworte:	AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING CONTACT LENSES INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASS B29C, RELATING TO PARTICULARARTICLES OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS OPTICS PERFORMING OPERATIONS PHYSICS PRODUCING PARTICULAR ARTICLES FROM PLASTICS OR FROM SUBSTANCESIN A PLASTIC STATE SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS SPECTACLES SUNGLASSES OR GOGGLES INSOFAR AS THEY HAVE THE SAME FEATURESAS SPECTACLES TRANSPORTING WORKING OF PLASTICS WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:	An apparatus for forming contact lenses, wherein front curve mold halves are filled with a hardenable transparent material, such as a polymerizable hydrogel, and back curve mold halves are coupled to the front curve, therein forming a lens. More particularly, the apparatus includes a conveyor for transporting pallets of mold halves to the apparatus, an array of piston structures for raising and aligning the back curves with respect to the filled front curve halves, a mechanism for reciprocating the piston array to couple pairs of front and back curves, and a vacuum chamber for maintaining a vacuum around the curves during coupling. In addition, there is provided individual spring biasing to each reciprocating element whereby sensitivity to thickness variations and pallet misfeeds may be minimized. Further, there is provided a vacuum sleeve, through which the pistons reciprocate within the vacuum chamber, which sleeve preserves the vacuum within the chamber.