An ophthalmic substrate conveyor and method of conveying ophthalmic substrates for vacuum deposition utilizes gravity and impulse action energy to convey an ophthalmic substrate to an adjacent vacuum deposition machine, for coating the ophthalmic substrate with an ophthalmic substance through physical vapor deposition. The conveyor provides a spring-loaded lens wheel that selectively retains the ophthalmic substrate during coating. The lens wheel rides a pair of inclined rails, urged by gravity, to a vacuum deposition machine that coats HEV absorbing material onto ophthalmic substrate. An escapement mechanism subassembly transfers impulse action energy to the lens wheel to regulate the speed and direction of the lens wheel across the inclined rails. A rotation servomechanism senses and rotates the lens wheel to the desired orientation during coating. A ring spreader actuator engages springs in the lens wheel to clamp and release the ophthalmic substrate. A control unit regulates servomechanism and ring spreader actuator.

An automated production line for the production of ophthalmic lenses comprises: a production line front end (1) comprising: a first injection-molding machine (10) and a second injection-molding machine (12) a casting module (14) comprising a filling station (144) and a capping station (145); a stacking module (15) and a curing module (16); a destacking module (17) and a demolding and delensing module a production line back end (2) comprising: a scalable treatment module (20); an inspection module (21); a primary packaging module (22),

Wherein the first and second injection-molding machines allow for a quick exchange of the tooling plates used in the injection molding machine without the need to decrease the temperature of the injection molding machine by pre-configured tooling plates.

An automated production line for the production of ophthalmic lenses comprises: a production line front end (1) comprising: a first injection-molding machine (10) and a second injection-molding machine (12) a casting module (14) comprising a filling station (144) and a capping station (145); a stacking module (15) and a curing module (16); a destacking module (17) and a demolding and delensing module a production line back end (2) comprising: a scalable treatment module (20) comprising a number of liquid baths for a liquid bath treatment of the cured lenses (CL) carried by the treatment carrier tray (200) to obtain the ophthalmic lenses, wherein the number of liquid baths are reduced or increased pending on the number of ophthalmic lenses concurrently produced by the production lines.

An automated production line for the production of ophthalmic lenses comprises: a production line front end (1) comprising: a first injection-molding machine (10) and a second injection-molding machine (12) a casting module (14) comprising a filling station (144) and a capping station (145); a stacking module (15) and a curing module (16); a destacking module (17) and a demolding and delensing module a production line back end (2) comprising: an inspection module (21);
Wherein the inspection module comprising a rail system in which self-driving shuttles carrying the inspection cuvettes are arranged on a closed-loop rail, wherein the rail system can be adapted to the available space in the production plant/hall using curves and straight portions in the manner known from a model railway.

An automated production line for the production of ophthalmic lenses comprises:

a production line front end comprising: a first and a second injection-molding machine, a casting module, a filling station and a capping station, a stacking module and a curing module, a destacking module and a demolding and delensing module

a production line back end comprising:

a treatment module,

an inspection module,

wherein self-driving shuttles in the inspection module can form a queue and act as a buffer for the primary packaging module if an interruption of the primary packaging module and variations of the cycle time in the primary packaging module are buffered so that the extraction module is able to operate largely independently from the upstream and downstream components of the manufacturing line.

An automated production line for the production of ophthalmic lenses comprises:

a production line front end (1) comprising: a first injection-molding machine (10) and a second injection-molding machine (12) a casting module (14) comprising a filling station (144) and a capping station (145); a stacking module (15) and a curing module (16); a destacking module (17) and a demolding and delensing module

a production line back end (2) comprising:

a treatment module (20),

an inspection module (21),

wherein the production line has the easy adaptability of curing times and temperatures, and in the capability of using different treatment liquids and treatment times in the extraction module to achieve the product flexibility.

A system and a method for processing of optical lenses in which the processing takes place by different processing apparatus between which there is a respective transfer apparatus. The transfer apparatus are used both for longitudinal and also cross conveyance. Each processing apparatus has its own conveyor apparatus which is controlled by the processing apparatus itself. The transfer apparatus are controlled by a central transfer control.

The invention provides a contact lens manufacturing method comprising a process for removing unprocessed molded silicone hydrogel contact lenses from mold halves in a relatively efficient and consistent manner. A method of the invention comprises the combination of using a hydrophilic (meth)acrylamido monomer as one of major polymerizable components in a lens formulation for cast-molding of contact lenses, adding a post-curing treatment step which involves heating molds with molded lenses therewithin in an oven at a post-curing temperature higher than the curing temperature and under nitrogen gas flow at a higher flow rate, and using ultrasonic vibration energy for delensing. This method of the invention can be easily implemented in a production environment for enhancing the production yield.

A method of providing a male mold half (1) for molding a toric contact lens at a predetermined target rotational orientation is disclosed. The male mold half comprises a front face (10) having a toric convex lens-forming surface (100) and a rear face (11) The method comprises the steps of: providing the male mold half (1) at a predetermined rotational orientation (PROM), picking the male mold half (1) up with a gripper (5) having a central axis (55), rotating the gripper (5) with the male mold half (1) about the central axis (55) of the gripper (5) by a predetermined rotational angle (α) towards the predetermined target rotational orientation (TROM), and releasing the rotated male mold half (1) from the gripper (5).

Prior to picking the male mold half (1) up, the method comprises centering the gripper (5) and the male mold half (1) relative to each other such that the central axis (55) of the gripper and a central axis (113) of the male mold (1) half coincide.

The invention provides a method producing contact lenses, including the step of: holding the molded silicone hydrogel contact lens attached to the one of the female mold half or the male mold half with a vacuum supplied with a suction cup; deforming a surface of the one of the female mold half or the male mold half having the molded silicone hydrogel contact lens attached to with a pin so as to separate the molded silicone hydrogel contact lens from the mold half attached to and to transfer the molded silicone hydrogel contact lens to the suction cup; moving the suction cup away from the pin while the suction cup continues to hold the molded silicone hydrogel contact lens remains; applying a compressed gas to blow the molded silicone hydrogel contact lens away from the suction cup into a container.