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AssigneeJohnson & Johnson Vision Products, Inc.
InventorsWallace Anthony Martin, Jonathan Patrick Adams, Finn Thrige Andersen, Stephen Robert Beaton, Svend Christensen, Allan G. Jensen, Ture Kindt-Larsen, Victor Lust, Craig William Walker, Daniel Tsu-Fang Wang
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An automated method and apparatus is provided to mold and cure soft contact lenses. A molding station injection molds first and second mold parts for the production of the lenses and these mold parts are transferred to an inert gas or low oxygen environment wherein a series of automated stations receive the mold parts, deposit a polymerizable hydrogel within the first mold part, assemble and clamp the first and second mold parts together, apply radiant energy for polymerizing the hydrogel and subsequently separate the mold parts.
An apparatus for the automated manufacturing of contact lenses from a polymerizable hydrogel in a low oxygen environment, said apparatus comprising;
A method of automatically molding contact lenses from a polymerizable monomer or monomer mixture in a low oxygen environment, said method comprising;
An apparatus for the automated molding of contact lenses from a polymerizable hydrogel in a low oxygen environment, said apparatus comprising:
In a method of automatically molding contact lenses from a polymerizable monomer or monomer mixture in a low oxygen environment, wherein the method includes the steps of filling a polyolefin concave lens mold with a reactive monomer composition, forming a mold assembly with a polyolefin convex lens mold, and curing the reactive monomer composition therebetween to form a contact lens, an improvement to the method which comprises integrating a polyolefin lens mold production line with a contact lens production line, immediately transferring freshly molded polyolefin lens molds to an inert atmosphere and degassing the lens molds in said inert atmosphere for a predetermined time correlated to any atmospheric exposure to provide levels of oxygen at the reactive monomer/lens mold interface of no greater than 1.times.10.sup.-8 moles/cm.sup.3 prior to said filling, forming and curing steps.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.