Method for providing a male mold half for molding a toric ophthalmic lens at a predetermined target rotational orientation

A method of providing a male mold half (1) for molding a toric ophthalmic lens at a predetermined target rotational orientation (TROM), the male mold half comprising a front face (10) having a toric convex lens-forming surface (100) and a rear face (11) opposite to the front face (10), the method comprising the steps of

• providing the male mold half (1) at a predetermined rotational orientation (PROM),
• picking the male mold half (1) up with a gripper (5) having a central axis (55),
• rotating the gripper (5) with the male mold half (1) about the central axis (55) of the gripper (5) by a predetermined rotational angle (α) towards the predetermined target rotational orientation (TROM), the predetermined rotational angle (α) being the angular difference between the predetermined rotational orientation (PROM) and the predetermined target rotational orientation (TROM), and
• releasing the rotated male mold half (1) from the gripper (5), wherein
• prior to picking the male mold half (1) up, centering the gripper (5) and the male mold half (1) relative to each other such that the central axis (55) of the gripper and a central axis (113) of the male mold (1) half coincide;
• picking the male mold half (1) having the target rotational orientation (TROM) up with a capping stamp (7) having a central axis (75), and placing the male mold half (1) on a female mold half (2) to mate the male and female mold halves (1, 2) while keeping the target rotational orientation (TROM) of the male mold half (1) relative to a predetermined rotational orientation (PROF) of the female mold half (2) to form a closed lens mold (3), and
• prior to picking the male mold half (1) up with the capping stamp (7), centering the capping stamp (7) and the male mold half (1) relative to each other such that the central axis (75) of the capping stamp (7) and the central axis (113) of the male mold half (1) coincide.