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This is a record of a document published elsewhere, first published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as US-5658602-A, on 19 August 1997. OpenTechnical did not first disclose it. The identifier, hashes and timestamps below record what this library served and when, not when the material became public. View the original.

OT-2026-000003244

Method and apparatus for contact lens mold filling and assembly

Published
Permanent URL
Classification
Manufacturing & Assembly Equipment › Machining Systems
Assignee
JOHNSON & JOHNSON VISION PROD
Original source
US-5658602-A, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, 19 August 1997
Document SHA-256
0f1f84f7e016ae027b11f072baccba7cb24f717c0555a26258454b8adfc42a62

An apparatus for forming contact lenses, wherein front curve mold halves are filled with a hardenable transparent material, such as a polymerizable hydrogel, and back curve mold halves are coupled to the front curve, therein forming a lens. More particularly, the apparatus includes a conveyor for transporting pallets of mold halves to the apparatus, an array of piston structures for raising and aligning the back curves with respect to the filled front curve halves, a mechanism for reciprocating the piston array to couple pairs of front and back curves, and a vacuum chamber for maintaining a vacuum around the curves during coupling. In addition, there is provided individual spring biasing to each reciprocating element whereby sensitivity to thickness variations and pallet misfeeds may be minimized. Further, there is provided a vacuum sleeve, through which the pistons reciprocate within the vacuum chamber, which sleeve preserves the vacuum within the chamber.

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Abstract

An apparatus for forming contact lenses, wherein front curve mold halves are filled with a hardenable transparent material, such as a polymerizable hydrogel, and back curve mold halves are coupled to the front curve, therein forming a lens. More particularly, the apparatus includes a conveyor for transporting pallets of mold halves to the apparatus, an array of piston structures for raising and aligning the back curves with respect to the filled front curve halves, a mechanism for reciprocating the piston array to couple pairs of front and back curves, and a vacuum chamber for maintaining a vacuum around the curves during coupling. In addition, there is provided individual spring biasing to each reciprocating element whereby sensitivity to thickness variations and pallet misfeeds may be minimized. Further, there is provided a vacuum sleeve, through which the pistons reciprocate within the vacuum chamber, which sleeve preserves the vacuum within the chamber.

1. Drawings

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Publication information

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Citation

OpenTechnical Publication OT-2026-000003244, “Method and apparatus for contact lens mold filling and assembly,” published September 15, 2026 at 19:55:49 UTC, https://opentechnical.org/p/OT-2026-000003244.

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This record reproduces a document published elsewhere and is provided for reference and study. Rights in the original remain with its owner. See the publication policy.