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AssigneeNovartis AG
InventorsPeter Herbrechtsmeier, Peter Hagmann, Roger Biel, Axel Heinrich, Wilhelm Hörner, Egbert Jux, Anette Therese Lang-Schöll, Iris Jlona Leder-Brück, Achim Müller, Bernhard Seiferling, Werner Steffan
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The invention tackles the problem of improving the production process for contact lenses further, so that the production costs for contact lenses can be reduced further and the production capacities can be increased. To this end, provision is made for the two mould halves, which together form the mould for producing a contact lens, to be fixed to each other and/or detachably connected to each other by means of individual half-mould guide. In conjunction with a cyclic production process, a high degree of automation can be achieved in this way.
A process for producing a multiplicity of contact lenses from a starting material which can be crosslinked by applying suitable energy, the process comprising the steps of:
A device for producing contact lenses, comprising a plurality of individual reusable moulds, wherein each mould has a female mould half, a male mould half, wherein the female and male mould halves, independently of each other, include one or more guide surfaces, wherein the guide surfaces of the female and male mould halves provide centering and adjusting elements which are all necessary for substantially accurate and automatic centering/positioning of the female and male mould halves in relation to each other in each individual reusable mould, without additional adjustment work, when the female and male mould are joined to form a mould cavity defining the shape of a contact lens to be produced, wherein each mould is intended to accommodate a crosslinkable material and is designed to be at least partly transparent to energy which is supplied from outside and effects the crosslinking of the crosslinkable material, wherein the plurality of the individual reusable moulds are combined into a unit for transporting and for closing the individual moulds simultaneously, and wherein accurate alignments of the female mould halves and the male mould halves of each individual mould is individually and automatically performed by means of the guide surfaces of the female and male mould halves of each individual mould when the moulds are closed simultaneously.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.