According to one example, a molding apparatus may be utilized to mold one or more glass elements by heating of one or more glass materials and pressing the one or more glass materials between an upper mold and a lower mold. The molding apparatus includes a radiant heating module comprising a plurality of radiant heating elements, an upper resistive heating module comprising a first plurality of independently controlled resistive heating elements, and a lower resistive heating module comprising a second plurality of independently controlled resistive heating elements.

An optical lens molding device includes a raw material supplying unit for providing a solid-state optical material, a feeding unit for transporting the solid-state optical material along a feeding direction, a heating unit including a heating body and a heating conduit in spatial communication with the supplying unit for entering of the solid-state optical material, and a molding unit. The heating conduit has a downstream part extending in the heating body to heat and melt the solid-state optical material in the heating conduit into a fluid-state optical material. The molding unit defines a cavity and a sprue in communication between the cavity and the downstream part to permit the molten fluid-state optical material to be pressed by the solid-state optical material and to flow in and fill the cavity through the sprue.

An injection molding method includes the steps of:(A) preparing a molding unit and an injection unit, the molding unit including a first mold having a protruding portion, and a second mold having a movable post cooperating with an inner peripheral surface thereof to define a cavity; (B) moving the molds toward each other until the protruding portion cooperates with the second mold to define a forming space; (C) activating the injection unit for injecting the molten optical material into the forming space; (D) cooling the molding unit; and (E) moving the molds away from each other and subsequently activating the movable post to push a solidified optical material out of the forming space.

Methods and mold designs provide for fiducials in molding glass optical elements, such as glass lenses. A mold for use in the fabrication of a lens can include a first part of the mold including a first molding surface corresponding to a first surface of said lens, and a second part of the mold including a second molding surface corresponding to a second surface of said lens, the first and second part of the mold configured to apply pressure to a moldable material in at least one cavity therebetween, at least one marking structure located on at least one of the first part of the mold, the second part of the mold, or both, the at least one marking structure configured to form at least one fiducial in the molded structure. Such techniques are applicable to precision glass molding.

The present disclosure relates to a method for manufacturing a hollow glass item and, specifically, to a method for manufacturing an item made of hollow pressed glass. The method includes a step of depositing at least one drop of molten glass into a mold intended for modelling a predetermined outer shape of the glass item to be manufactured; a step of pressing the molten glass into the mold by a shaping punch in order to shape the hollow glass item by hollowing out an inside space; a step of marking the glass item with a marking tool which is independent from the shaping punch, in order to imprint at least one raised and/or recessed pattern in the inside space of the glass item; a step of cooling the marked, pressed glass item; and a step of removing the glass item from the mold.

In the conventional direct press method, it was difficult to control the weight of molten glass gob when manufacturing a small precision glass component and thus the weight of the glass gob varies widely. Accordingly, the problem is that the precise molding cannot be expected stably. As a solution, the present invention provides a mold for molding a glass-made optical component and a manufacturing method using the mold, the mold comprising: a female mold which has a lower mold of a molding mold for molding the glass-made optical component on an outer peripheral portion of a concave surface of the female mold; a male mold which has a convex surface combined with the concave surface of the female mold; and a ring mold which is arranged on an outer peripheral portion of the male mold, the ring mold having an upper mold of the molding mold for molding the glass-made optical component, wherein molten glass gob introduced into the concave surface of the female mold is configured to be pressed from above by the male mold having the convex surface so that the molten glass gob is injected into a space formed between the lower mold and the upper mold of the molding mold.

There are provided a lens forming mold, and a manufacturing method for a cylindrical lens, with which cylindrical lenses having good mass productivity can be manufactured. A lens forming mold for forming a molding on which a plurality of cylindrical surfaces are arranged in parallel includes: a first mold including a plurality of cylindrical surface forming portions that are arranged in parallel at equal intervals; and a first flat surface forming portion that is provided between adjacent cylindrical surface forming portions; and a second mold that sandwiches the glass material and faces the first mold when the molding is molded, in which the second mold includes a second flat surface forming portion that faces the plurality of cylindrical surface forming portions and the first flat surface forming portion.

A convex fitting portion 30 is provided on a center side to protrude from a support portion 20, and thus, in an assembling process of joining the lens array 100 to another lens array and the like, the lens array 100 can be precisely positioned by being supported from behind. Furthermore, a fitting portion transfer surface 83c forming the convex fitting portion 30 forms a concave portion on the center side of a die at the time of molding of the lens array 100, and thus a volume of a glass droplet, that is, heat capacity is increased, which is advantageous from a viewpoint of making molding of the optical surfaces 11a and 12a stable and highly precise, and the problems such as breakage are less likely to occur.

Provided is apparatus for fabricating materials, including: a first mold including a first forming unit pressing a first material, and a second forming mold arranged at a bottom surface of the first forming unit to have an opening exposing the first material and to form at least a part of the first material by being meshed at a part with the first forming unit; a second mold arranged at a bottom surface of the first mold to support a second material; and an interlocking mold including a fixing unit interposed between the first and second molds to fix the second material arranged at the second mold by pressing the second material, and an interlocking unit ascendably and descendibly coupled to the fixing unit to form the second material by pressing the second material in association with the forming of the first material.

There are provided a lens forming mold, and a manufacturing method for a cylindrical lens, with which cylindrical lenses having good mass productivity can be manufactured. A lens forming mold for forming a molding on which a plurality of cylindrical surfaces are arranged in parallel includes: a first mold including a plurality of cylindrical surface forming portions that are arranged in parallel at equal intervals; and a first flat surface forming portion that is provided between adjacent cylindrical surface forming portions; and a second mold that sandwiches the glass material and faces the first mold when the molding is molded, in which the second mold includes a second flat surface forming portion that faces the plurality of cylindrical surface forming portions and the first flat surface forming portion.