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AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsNobuhiro Yamamichi, Nobuyuki Nakagawa, Kosei Matsumoto
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It is an object of this invention to provide a molding apparatus capable of obtaining an optical element of which both an optical functional surface and a lens mounting reference can be molded simultaneously and which has an appropriate lens thickness. In order to achieve this object, the apparatus includes a lower mold having one molding surface on its upper surface, a lower periphery regulating member for fitting on an outer surface of the lower mold to regulate an excess of a glass material swelling outward from the molding surface of the lower mold, an upper mold having the other molding surface on its lower surface, and an upper periphery regulating member for fitting on an outer surface of the upper mold to regulate the excess of the glass material swelling outward from the molding surface of the upper mold. When at least one of the upper and lower molds is moved vertically to press-mold the thermally softened glass material with the molding surfaces, the excess of the glass material flows into a space formed by upper and lower ends of the lower and upper periphery regulating members, respectively. Positions of the upper and lower ends of the space where the excess of the glass material flows into change vertically along edges of the molding surfaces.
A molding apparatus for molding a non axially symmetric optical element by pressing a glass material softened by heat with an upper mold and a lower mold, said apparatus comprising:
An optical element molded from a molding apparatus for thermally softening a glass material and pressing the glass material with upper and lower molds, and having a space into which an excess of the glass material flows around molding surfaces of the upper and lower molds,
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.