Method of manufacturing surgical implants

Abstract

The present invention relates to a process for fabricating biocompatible implants. In particular, the present invention process involves punching out implants from sheet stock. In the exemplary embodiment, the implant is an intraocular lens, wherein the lens haptic is punched from ribbon stock fed through a punch press. The punching operation can be accomplished in a planar punch and die arrangement, or the die can be situated on cooperatively rotating drums. In an alternative embodiment, the entire intraocular lens is punched from sheet stock. In this process, the lens optics are formed first in the sheet stock to provide individual convex or concave hemispheres, spaced along the length and width of the sheet. The sheet stock is aligned with a die, and the die punches out the lens such that the lens optic coincides with the hemispheres and the lens haptics are punched therealong simultaneously.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.