Method for Making Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lenses

A method for producing a contact lens, comprising:

• the steps of:
• (1) providing a mold for making soft contact lenses, wherein the mold has a first mold half with a first molding surface defining an anterior surface of a contact lens and a second mold half with a second molding surface defining a posterior surface of the contact lens, wherein said first and second mold halves are configured to receive each other such that a cavity is formed between said first and second molding surfaces;
• (2) applying to at least a part of a surface of the mold a layer of water soluble and/ordispersible quaternary ammonium cationic group containing silicone surfactant,
• (3) at least partially drying said layer,
• (4) introduce a fluid polymerizable composition into the cavity, wherein the fluid polymerizable composition comprises at least one actinically-crosslinkable water processable siloxane-containing prepolymer,
• (5) curing the fluid polymerizable composition in the mold to form a silicone hydrogel contact lens, wherein the formed silicone hydrogel contact lens comprises the anterior surface defined by the first molding surface, the opposite posterior surface defined by the second molding surface;
• and
• (6) separating the mold, wherein the water soluble/dispersible surfactant is present is present in an amount sufficient to reduce an averaged mold separation force by at least about 30% in comparison with that without the water soluble and/or dispersible silicone surfactant.