Apparatus for contact lens mold assembly

• Main Authors: ADAMS, JONATHAN PATRICK, WIDMAN, MICHAEL FRANCIS, WANG, DANIEL TSU-FANG, ANDERSEN, FINN THRIGE, WALKER, CRAIG WILLIAM, MARTIN, WALLACE ANTHONY, STEVEN, JEFFREY ELDON, KINDT-LARSEN, TURE
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 20.06.2001
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: 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

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 means 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, reciprocating means for reciprocating the piston array to couple pairs of front and back curves, and a vacuum chamber and vacuum drawing means 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.