The invention is related to a cost-effective method for making a silicone hydrogel contact lens having a crosslinked hydrophilic coating thereon. A method of the invention involves autoclaving, in a sealed lens package, a silicone hydrogel contact lens having a base coating of polyacrylic acid thereon in an aqueous solution in the presence of a water-soluble, crosslinkable hydrophilic polymeric material having epoxide groups, for a period of time sufficient to covalently attach the crosslinkable hydrophilic polymeric material onto the surface of the silicone hydrogel contact lens through covalent linkages each formed between one epoxide group and one of the carboxyl groups on and/or near the surface of the silicone hydrogel contact lens.

A method for forming an ophthalmic lens including providing a mold assembly including base and front curve molds each having a surface profile and defining and enclosing a cavity therebetween having a reactive monomer mixture for making the lens and a first polymerization initiator that is activated at a first wavelength. A light transmissive one of the molds is exposed to a source of substantially uniform actinic radiation at the first wavelength according to a predetermined exposure pattern including at least one exposure portion and at least one non-exposure portion to initiate polymerization of the reactive monomer mixture within the mold at said at least one exposure portion. The lens is fully cured at the exposure portions and unreacted or non-gelled portions remain within the lens adjacent to the front and base mold halves, which are extracted following removal from the mold assembly, leaving one or more predetermined geometric indentations in the front and back surfaces of the lens such that the surface profile of the lens deviates from the surface profile of the respective front and back mold halves at the locations of the geometric indentations.

The invention provides a method for making silicone hydrogel contact lenses in a relatively efficient and consistent manner from a lens formulation (i.e., a polymerizable composition) including a thermal initiator having a 10-hour half-life temperature (T.sub.10hλ) under a controlled thermal curing scheme. A method of the invention comprises a step of curing the lens formulation in an oven according to a thermal curing profile that comprises or consists essentially of increasing the oven's temperature from room temperature or a temperature that is at least about 5° C. lower than T.sub.10hλ to a temperature that is at least 30° C. higher than T.sub.10hλ at a selected rate (e.g., from about 1° C./minute to about 10° C./minute). Under such a controlled thermal curing scheme, the lens diameter of the fully-hydrated silicone hydrogel contact lenses obtained according to a method of the invention does not vary significantly with the positions of the molds in the oven.

Described herein is a cost-effective and time-efficient method for producing UV- and HEVL-absorbing silicone hydrogel contact lenses capable of blocking ultra-violet (“UV”) radiation and high-energy-violet light (HEVL) with wavelengths from 380 nm to 440 nm, thereby protecting eyes to some extent from damages caused by UV and HEVL radiation. This invention also provides UV- and HEVL-absorbing absorbing contact lenses made according to a method of the invention.

The present invention relates to a method for producing at least one optical component (1), comprising the steps of: a) Providing at least one cavity (2), wherein the at least one cavity (2) is delimited on a first side by a surface (3a) of a first membrane portion (3), wherein a shape of the first membrane portion (3) is adjustable; b) Filling a material (4) into the at least one cavity (2) for forming at least one optical component (1), such that the material (4) contacts a surface (3a) of the first membrane portion (3); c) Adjusting the shape of the first membrane portion (3); d) Curing the material (4) filled into the at least one cavity (2) so that the material (4) forms a first interface (e.g. a first optical surface) (1a) of the at least one optical component (1), which first interface (1a) comprises a shape defined by a shape of the surface (3a) of the first membrane portion (3).

The present invention generally relates to inherently wettable silicone hydrogel contact lenses having relatively high oxygen permeability, relatively high equilibrium water content and relatively low elastic modulus. The present invention is also related to a method for making such inherently wettable silicone hydrogel contact lenses.

A method for producing embedded hydrogel contact lenses comprises at least the following steps: obtaining an insert made of a crosslinked polymeric material comprising repeating units of a free-radical photoinitiator; placing the insert in a female lens mold half; dosing an amount of a lens-forming composition to immerse the insert in the female lens mold half; closing tightly a male lens mold half onto the top of the female lens mold half halves to form a molding assembly; actinically curing both the lens-forming composition in the molding assembly to form an embedded hydrogel lens precursor which comprises a bulk hydrogel material formed the lens-forming composition and the insert that is embedded therein and covalently linked to the bulk hydrogel material.

A silicone hydrogel composition includes a first hydrophilic monomer, a siloxane compound, a first crosslinking monomer, a second hydrophilic monomer, and a second crosslinking monomer. The first hydrophilic monomer and the siloxane compound have an acrylate group or an acrylamide group and may also have a methacrylate group or a methacrylamide group. The first crosslinking monomer has a plurality of acrylate groups or acrylamide groups and may also have methacrylate groups or methacrylamide groups. The second hydrophilic monomer has a non-conjugated vinyl group. The second crosslinking monomer has a plurality of non-conjugated vinyl groups. A sum of the weights of the second hydrophilic monomer and the second crosslinking monomer is 40 to 100 parts by weight, relative to 100 parts by weight of the sum of the weights of the first hydrophilic monomer, the siloxane compound, and the first crosslinking monomer.

The present invention generally relates to inherently wettable silicone hydrogel contact lenses having relatively high oxygen permeability, relatively high equilibrium water content and relatively low elastic modulus. The present invention is also related to a method for making such inherently wettable silicone hydrogel contact lenses.

The invention provides a contact lens manufacturing method for cast-molding of silicone hydrogel contact lenses having enhanced oxygen permeability without adversely affecting desirable lens mechanical properties (e.g., modulus). A method of the invention comprises adding a small amount of a radical scavenger (e.g., H-TEMPO) in a polymerizable composition for cast-molding of SiHy contact lenses) to provide the resultant polymerizable composition with a bi-phase curing profile at a curing temperature of from about 45° C. to about 100° C. With such a bi-phase curing profile, the resultant polymerizable composition can be thermally cured at the curing temperature to form a SiHy contact lens having an oxygen permeability higher than that for a polymerizable composition having the substantially identical composition excepting being free of any radical scavenger.