Process for finishing optical lenses and apparatus therefor

An apparatus for finishing optical lenses comprising:

• a housing enclosing at least one lens processing chamber;
• at least one processing unit within said chamber, said processing unit including a lens holder adapted to receive and hold an optical lens thereon, and a finishing tool mounted for operative engagement with the optical lens held by said lens holder, said finishing tool comprising one or the other of a smoothing pad and a polishing pad;
• means for moving said lens holder toward and away from said finishing tool;
• feeding means for feeding one of a smoothing compound and a polishing compound onto said lens and said finishing tool;
• exit tube means associated with said chamber for discharging said one of said smoothing compound and polishing compound;
• first and second receiver means for separately receiving spent smoothing compound and spent polishing compound from said exit tube means;
• drive means for moving one of said first and second receiver means into operative association with said exit tube means;
• and
• recirculation means connected to said feeding means and to said first and second receiver means for recirculating one of said spent smoothing compound and said spent polishing compound from said first and second receiver means to said feeding means.