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US 2003/0190872 A1Published application
Lens layout block device
AssigneeHoya Corporation
InventorsMichio Arai, Shuichi Sato
Life of this patent
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AssigneeHoya Corporation
InventorsMichio Arai, Shuichi Sato
Estimating the term…
A lens layout block device, comprising a seal feeding device (24) for feeding an elastic seal (3) to a seal sticking position (A5), wherein the elastic seal (3) is loaded in a tape loading part (73) in the form of a seal tape (67) covered by a mount (65) and a protective sheet (66) and wound in roll shape and fed by the driving of a motor (86), the protective sheet (66) being separated by a protective sheet separating mechanism (75), whereby a sensor (108) detects the leading edge of a positioning hole (69) in the mount (65) at the seal sticking position (A5) and stops feeding the seal tape (67) after feeding the seal tape (67) for a specified time from the time of the detection, the stop position is positioned as the reference sticking position of the elastic seal (3) and a lens holder (2) is pressed against the elastic seal (3) from the upper side for sticking, and the mount (65) is pulled down by the seal separating mechanism (110) so as to separate the mount (65) from the elastic seal (3).
A lens layout blocker characterized by comprising a seal supply unit for supplying an elastic seal which is to be adhered to a lens holder, a unit for adhering a supplied elastic seal to a lens holder, and a unit for making a lens holder adhered with an elastic seal hold a lens, wherein said seal supply unit has a tape loader on which a seal tape formed by covering the elastic seal with a mount and a protector paper and wound in a roll shape is to be loaded, a tape feed unit for intermittently feeding the seal tape from said tape loader, a protector paper separating unit for separating the protector paper of the seal tape fed from said tape loader, and means on which a lens holder is urged against an elastic seal at the seal adhering position.
A method of adhering an elastic seal to a lens holder in which the method comprises a seal tape supply unit having a convey mechanism for conveying, to a seal adhering position at a predetermined convey speed in a state wherein a protector paper is separated, a seal tape which is formed by adhering elastic seals to a mount having positioning holes formed at a predetermined pitch so as to coincide central holes of the elastic seals with the positioning holes, and covers the surfaces of the mount and the elastic seals with the protector paper, and a holder hold unit for holding a lens holder to be vertically movable and to be pivotal within a horizontal plane, and the lens holder is conveyed to the seal adhering position by the holder holding unit and is moved downward, thereby urging the lens holder against the elastic seal to be adhered thereto, characterized in that when the seal tape is conveyed to the seal adhering position, a sensor detects a front edge of a positioning hole of the mount, conveyance of the seal tape is stopped after the seal tape is fed from the detection time by a predetermined time period, the stop position is determined as a reference adhering position of an elastic seal, and the holder hold unit is driven and controlled on the basis of reference adhering position information to urge the lens holder against the elastic seal to be adhered thereto.
An elastic seal supply method of automatically supplying, to a seal adhering position, an elastic seal which is to be adhered to a lens holder in order to hold a lens, characterized by comprising
An elastic seal supply unit for automatically supplying, to a seal adhering position, an elastic seal which is to be adhered to a lens holder in order to hold a lens, characterized by comprising
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
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Of optical work, e.g. lenses, prisms: accessories, e.g. lens mounting devices
Machines or devices designed for grinding or polishing optical surfaces on lenses or surfaces of similar shape on other work; Accessories…
Blocking means, chucks or the like; Alignment devices: lens block moulding devices
For plural parts or plural areas of single part: means bringing discrete articles into assembled relationship
Term end not estimated
The present invention relates to a lens layout blocker.
Spectacle lenses (to be also referred to as lenses hereinafter) include different types such as a single-vision lens, a multifocal lens, and a progressive multifocal lens, and their diameters, outer diameters, lens powers, and the like differ from one lens type to another. Hence, a large number of types of lenses must be fabricated.
Conventionally, edging of such lenses is performed in accordance with the following procedure. For example, assume that a single-vision lens is to be edged. When the prescription lens is determined, if it is an ordinary prescription, a corresponding prescription lens is selected from the stock lenses (mass-production products of the regular inventories). If the prescription lens is a lens not available from the stock lenses (a custom-made article not available from the regular inventories), it is manufactured by the factory in accordance with the order. A stock lens has an upper surface (convex lens surface) and lower surface (concave lens surface) finished with predetermined lens curvatures (curves) on the basis of the optical design to have a predetermined lens power, and is completed until the final step of a surface process such as hardwearing coating or antireflection coating. Regarding a custom-made article, a lens material for it is prepared in advance in the form of a semi-finished product (semi-finished lens blank). The lens material is subjected to roughing-out, polishing, and the like in accordance with the ordered prescription power, and then to a surface process, so it is used as the prescription lens.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are front and rear views, respectively, of a lens holder;
FIG. 2 is a view showing a state in which a lens is held by the lens holder through an elastic seal;
FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C are an enlarged sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 1A, a view showing a lens holding surface, and an enlarged sectional view of this lens holding surface, respectively;
An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Structures of a lens and lens holder which are processed by an APS for a single-vision lens will be described on the basis of FIGS. 1A, 1B, 2, 3A, 3B, and 3C.
Referring to FIGS. 1A to 3C, a spectacle single-vision lens 1 (to be merely referred to as a lens hereinafter) made of plastic has a convex lens surface 1a and concave lens surface 1b. The edge of the lens 1 is edged by an edger to conform to the shape of a lens frame.