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US 6,387,441 B1Granted
Optical lens coating apparatus and method
AssigneeOptima, Inc.
InventorsZhou Yang, Yinghui Wu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus are provided for batch, continuous, or semi-continuous coating of optical lenses. The method and apparatus use a plurality of carriages which are reciprocally moved in the apparatus to transfer jigs from a jig filled carriage to a lens loading arm and to load the jigs with lenses and then to transfer the jigs now containing uncoated lenses to a leading empty carriage. Using such a reciprocating motion, a leading empty carriage is now filled with jigs containing uncoated lenses and the uncoated lenses in the carriage may then be coated by dipping the carriage in a coating tank. After coating, the coated lenses are removed from the system. A similar reciprocating motion is used in the coated lens unloading section.
Claims8
A continuous method for coating optical lenses comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a leading first empty carriage and preceding second empty carriage, each carriage adapted to hold a plurality of jigs containing lenses in a front-back and side-by-side arrangement, each jig adapted to hold a single lens;
- (b) providing a plurality of preceding carriages each of which is filled with a plurality of jigs in a front-back and side-by-side arrangement, forming a filled jig carriage;
- (c) providing an uncoated lens loading station including an uncoated lens loading arm and a lens supply, a coating tank, and a coated lens unloading station including a coated lens unloading arm and a coated lens removal system;
- (d) positioning the filled jig carriage at the uncoated lens loading arm;
- (e) removing the front side-by-side row of jigs from the filled jig carriage onto the uncoated lens loading arm;
- (f) securing a lens from the lens supply in each jig in the uncoated lens loading arm forming a plurality of lens containing jigs;
- (g) moving the filled jig carriage back with the second empty carriage so that the second empty carriage is in a position adjacent the uncoated lens loading arm and transferring each lens containing jig to the second empty carriage;
- (h) repeating steps (d)-(g) until the filled jig carriage now is empty forming an empty carriage and the second empty carriage is full forming a filled jig and uncoated lens carriage;
- (i) removing the filled jig and uncoated lens carriage from the uncoated lens loading station;
- (j) coating the lenses in the filled jig and uncoated lens carriage in the coating tank forming a filled jig and coated lens carriage;
- (k) moving the leading first empty carriage and filled jig and coated lens carriage to the coated lens unloading station;
- (l) positioning the filled jig and coated lens carriage at the coated lens unloading arm;
- (m) removing a front side-by-side row of jigs from the filled jig and coated lens carriage onto the coated lens unloading arm;
- (n) removing the coated lenses from the jigs onto the coated lens removal system and removing the coated lenses from the system;
- (o) moving the first empty carriage back with the filled jig and coated lens carriage so that the first empty carriage is positioned adjacent the coated lens unloading arm;
- (p) transferring the jigs from the coated lens unloading arm to the first empty carriage;
- (q) repeating steps (l)-(p) until the filled jig and coated lens carriage is empty forming an empty carriage and the first empty carriage is full forming a filled jig carriage;
- (r) removing the filled jig carriage from the coated lens unloading section and repeating steps (l)-(p) to unload lenses from another filled jig and coated lens carriage;
- and
- (s) repeating the above steps until all the lenses are coated.
17 more elements
A method for coating optical lenses comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a leading first empty carriage, the carriage adapted to hold a plurality of jigs containing lenses in a front-back and side-by-side arrangement, each jig adapted to hold a single lens;
- (b) providing a plurality of preceding carriages each of which is filled with a plurality of jigs in a front-back and side-by-side arrangement, forming a filled jig carriage;
- (c) providing an uncoated lens loading station including an uncoated lens loading arm and a lens supply a coating tank, and a coated lens unloading station including a coated lens unloading arm and a coated lens removal system;
- (d) positioning the filled jig carriage at the uncoated lens loading arm;
- (e) removing the front row of jigs from the filled jig carriage onto the uncoated lens loading arm;
- (f) securing a lens from the lens supply in each jig in the uncoated lens loading arm forming a plurality of lens containing jigs;
- (g) moving the filled jig carriage back so that the first empty carriage is in a position adjacent the uncoated lens loading arm and transferring each lens containing jig to the second empty carriage;
- (h) repeating steps (d)-(g) until the filled jig carriage now is empty forming an empty carriage and the second empty carriage is full forming a filled jig and uncoated lens carriage;
- (i) removing the filled jig and uncoated lens carriage from the uncoated lens loading station;
- (j) coating the lenses in the filled jig and uncoated lens carriage in the coating tank forming a filled jig and coated lens carriage;
- (k) moving a leading second empty carriage and filled jig and coated lens carriage to the coated lens unloading station;
- (l) positioning the filled jig and coated lens carriage at the coated lens unloading arm;
- (m) removing a front row of jigs from the filled jig and coated lens carriage onto the coated lens unloading arm;
- (n) removing the coated lenses from the jigs onto the coated lens removal system and removing the coated lenses from the system;
- (o) moving the second empty carriage back so that the second empty carriage is positioned adjacent the coated lens unloading arm;
- (p) transferring the jigs to the second empty carriage;
- (q) repeating steps (l)-(p) until the filled jig and coated lens carriage is empty forming an empty carriage and the second empty carriage is full forming a filled jig carriage;
- (r) removing the filled jig carriage from the coated lens unloading section and repeating steps (l)-(p) to unload lenses from another filled jig and coated lens carriage;
- and
- (s) repeating the above steps until all the lenses are coated.
17 more elements
A method for coating optical lenses comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a leading first empty carriage, the carriage adapted to hold a plurality of jigs containing lenses in a front-back and side-by-side arrangement, each jig adapted to hold a single lens;
- (b) providing a plurality of preceding carriages each of which is filled with a plurality of jigs in a front-back and side-by-side arrangement, forming a filled jig carriage;
- (c) providing an uncoated lens loading station including an uncoated lens loading arm and a lens supply, and a coating tank;
- (d) positioning the filled jig carriage at the uncoated lens loading arm;
- (e) removing the front row of jigs from the filled jig carriage onto the uncoated lens loading arm;
- (f) securing a lens from the lens supply in each jig in the uncoated lens loading arm forming a plurality of lens containing jigs;
- (g) moving the filled jig carriage back so that the first empty carriage is in a position adjacent the uncoated lens loading arm and transferring each lens containing jig to the second empty carriage;
- (h) repeating steps (d)-(g) until the filled jig carriage now is empty forming an empty carriage and the second empty carriage is full forming a filled jig and uncoated lens carriage;
- (i) removing the filled jig and uncoated lens carriage from the uncoated lens loading station;
- (j) coating the lenses in the filled jig and uncoated lens carriage in the coating tank forming a filled jig and coated lens carriage;
- and
- (k) removing the coated lens.
9 more elements
A method for removing coated lenses from a coating system comprising the steps of:
- (a) moving a leading empty carriage and a filled jig and coated lens carriage to a coated lens unloading station;
- (b) positioning the filled jig and coated lens carriage at a coated lens unloading arm;
- (c) removing a front row of jigs from the filled jig and coated lens carriage onto the coated lens unloading arm;
- (d) removing the coated lenses from the jigs onto a coated lens removal system and removing the coated lenses from the system;
- (e) moving the empty carriage back so that the empty carriage is positioned adjacent the coated lens unloading arm;
- (f) transferring the jigs to the empty carriage;
- (g) repeating steps (b)-(f) until the filled jig and coated lens carriage is empty forming an empty carriage and the empty carriage is full forming a filled jig carriage;
- (h) removing the filled jig carriage from the coated lens unloading section and repeating steps (b)-(f) to unload lenses from another filled jig and coated lens carriage;
- and
- (i) repeating the above steps until all the coated lenses are removed from the system.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.