Method for producing a coating on a spectacle lens, and spectacle lens

Abstract

A method for producing a coating on a surface of a coated or uncoated spectacle lens includes: applying a masking on a partial region of the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens, applying at least one layer on the surface, and removing the masking and the at least one layer applied on the masking from the partial region of the surface. The masking is applied with a matrix printing method. A spectacle lens produced by the method is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for producing a coating on a surface of a coated or uncoated spectacle lens, the method comprising: applying a masking on a partial region of a surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens with a matrix printer; applying a layer on the masking and on a remaining region of the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens; and removing the masking and a portion of the layer applied on the masking from the partial region of the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens, wherein a proportion of the partial region of the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens is 20% or less relative to an entire surface region of a finished, edged spectacle lens made from the coated or uncoated spectacle lens, and wherein the layer is a part of an antireflection layer having a multilayered construction.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the matrix printer is an inkjet printer.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the layer is a first layer, the method further comprising at least one of: applying a second layer on the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens before applying the masking, or applying the second layer on the partial region of a surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens and on the layer on the remaining region of the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens after removing the masking from the partial region.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the removal of the masking comprises at least one of: wiping away the masking, or dipping the coated or uncoated spectacle lens into a solvent, wherein the solvent includes acetone.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the layer has a reflection maximum in a visible spectral range or in a non-visible spectral range.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the coated or uncoated spectacle lens is a lens blank, a spectacle lens semifinished product, or a finished spectacle lens.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the masking of the partial region comprises a radiation-curable inkjet ink.

8. A spectacle lens produced by the method as claimed in claim 1.

9. The spectacle lens as claimed in claim 8, wherein a proportion of the partial region is 0.05% to 17% relative to the entire surface region of the finished, edged spectacle lens made from the coated or uncoated spectacle lens.

10. The spectacle lens as claimed in claim 8, wherein the partial region has a shape of a pattern.

11. A spectacle lens comprising: a layer applied selectively on a partial region of a surface of the spectacle lens, wherein a boundary line between the partial region and an adjoining partial region in which the layer is not applied is defined by a printing with a matrix printer, wherein the layer applied selectively on the partial region of the spectacle lens defines a reflection image, wherein a proportion of the partial region of the spectacle lens provided with the reflection image is 20% or less relative to an entire surface of a finished, edged spectacle lens made from the spectacle lens, and wherein the layer applied selectively on the partial region of the spectacle lens is a part of a multilayered construction.

12. The spectacle lens as claimed in claim 8, wherein the spectacle lens is a lens blank, a spectacle lens semifinished product, or a finished spectacle lens.

13. A method for producing a coating on a surface of a coated or uncoated spectacle lens, the method comprising: applying a masking on a partial region of a surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens with a matrix printer; applying a layer on the masking and on a remaining region of the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens; and removing the masking and a portion of the layer applied on the masking from the partial region of the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens, wherein a proportion of the partial region of the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens is 10% to 30% relative to an entire surface region of a finished, edged spectacle lens made from the coated or uncoated spectacle lens, wherein the partial region is a circumferential edge region arranged at a constant distance from a boundary of the surface, and wherein the layer is a part of an antireflection layer having a multilayered construction.

14. A spectacle lens comprising: a layer applied selectively on a partial region of a surface of the spectacle lens, wherein a boundary line between the partial region and an adjoining partial region in which the layer is not applied is defined by a printing with a matrix printer, wherein the layer applied selectively on the partial region of the spectacle lens defines a reflection image, wherein a proportion of the partial region of the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens is 10% to 30% relative to an entire surface region of a finished, edged spectacle lens made from the coated or uncoated spectacle lens, wherein the partial region is a circumferential edge region arranged at a constant distance from a boundary of the surface, and wherein the layer is a part of a multilayered construction.

15. The spectacle lens as claimed in claim 10, wherein the pattern is a logo, a letter, a negative of the logo, or a negative of the letter.

16. The spectacle lens as claimed in claim 11, wherein the boundary line has a pixel structure.

17. The spectacle lens as claimed in claim 14, wherein the boundary line has a pixel structure.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The disclosure will now be described with reference to the drawings wherein:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a flow diagram of method steps of a method for producing a coating on a surface of an uncoated or coated spectacle lens;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram of method steps of an alternative method for producing a coating on a surface of a coated or uncoated spectacle lens;

(4) FIG. 3 shows an uncoated spectacle lens with masking and a layer applied thereabove;

(5) FIG. 4 shows an uncoated spectacle lens with a first layer partly covering the surface, and a second layer completely covering the surface;

(6) FIG. 5 shows an uncoated spectacle lens with masking;

(7) FIG. 6 shows a coated spectacle lens with masking;

(8) FIG. 7 shows a coated spectacle lens with coating and a partial region provided with a masking;

(9) FIG. 8 shows a coated spectacle lens with a layer applied on parts of a surface;

(10) FIGS. 9A and B show a roughly circular spectacle lens with a masking applied thereon and also the negative thereof;

(11) FIGS. 10A and B show a roughly circular spectacle lens with masking applied thereon and an enlarged view of the masking;

(12) FIG. 11 shows a coated spectacle lens with a first layer present on a partial region of the surface, and two further layers present thereon and covering the entire surface;

(13) FIG. 12 shows an outline edge or boundary line of a masking produced by means of inkjet printing with 50-fold magnification by a light microscope; and

(14) FIG. 13 shows a plan view of spectacles with a reflection image present on the spectacle lenses.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

(15) Hereinafter, the spectacle lens 10 is a spectacle lens semifinished product or a finished spectacle lens before or after edge processing.

(16) FIG. 1 shows a flow diagram of a method of producing a coating on a surface 14 of a coated or uncoated spectacle lens 10. In a first step 62, the at least one masking of at least one partial region of at least one surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens is carried out by means of a conventional inkjet printing method. In step 64, a layer is applied on the at least one masking and on that partial region of the same surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens 10 which is not provided with at least one masking, in such a way that the entire surface is covered. A further step 66 involves removing the inkjet ink applied as at least one masking from the partial region of the surface by immersion in acetone, followed by wiping away using a cotton cloth and renewed wiping away using a cotton cloth impregnated with acetone. This ensures that the layer applied in step 64 is present only on the non-masked partial regions of the surface of the coated or uncoated spectacle lens 10. Consequently, the spectacle lens 10 obtained as a result has a different light transmittance and reflectance over the surface of the spectacle lens 10 that is processed in steps 62 to 66.

(17) FIG. 2 shows a further flow diagram of a method for producing a coating on a surface 14 of a coated or uncoated spectacle lens 10. In a first step 60, a hard coating is applied on at least one surface of the spectacle lens 10. Steps 62, 64, and 66 that then follow correspond to steps 62, 64, and 66 mentioned above, with reference to FIG. 1. In a further step 68, a further layer completely covering the same surface is subsequently applied on the first layer, which only partly covers this surface of the spectacle lens 10. The further and the first layer are typically part of an antireflection layer. In this case, the first layer has a reflection maximum in the visible spectral range that is different than the reflection maximum of the further layer, which is likewise present in the visible spectral range. A reflection image determined by the two different reflection maxima in the visible range is thus produced.

(18) FIG. 3 shows a spectacle lens 10 modified by the method according to the disclosure. The surface 14 of an uncoated spectacle lens 12′ here has a masking 20 of a partial region 16 of the surface 14. At the boundary line 30, the masking 20 is in contact with the layer 22, for example an antireflection layer or one of the layers of an antireflection layer, which covers the entire surface 14 and the masking 20 within the scope of the partial region 16.

(19) FIG. 4 shows the uncoated spectacle lens 10 in accordance with FIG. 3 after the masking 20 and the layer 22 present on the masking have been removed by means of wiping away using a cotton cloth impregnated with acetone and subsequent washing away using acetone and a further layer 24 has been applied on the surface of the layer 22 and in the region 16 on the surface 14 of the uncoated spectacle lens 12′. The layer 22 is a first layer of an antireflection layer, and the layer 24 is a second layer of an antireflection layer. Both layers have different reflection maxima in the range of visible light, thus resulting in a reflection image in accordance with the reflection properties of the second layer 24 in the masked partial region 16 of the surface 14. For the uncoated partial region 14 of the surface, by contrast, the reflection results from the properties of both layers 22 and 24.

(20) FIG. 5 shows a spectacle lens 10. A masking 20 produced by means of an inkjet printing method is present on a partial region 16 of the surface 14 of an uncoated spectacle lens 12′.

(21) FIG. 6 shows a spectacle lens 10 with a masking 20 produced by means of an inkjet printing method on a partial region 16 of the surface 14′ of a coated spectacle lens 12.

(22) FIG. 7 shows a spectacle lens 10 with a masking 20 produced by means of an inkjet printing method on a partial region 16 of the surface 14′ of a coated spectacle lens 12. The coating of the coated spectacle lens 12 is a reflection layer. A coating 22, likewise embodied as a reflection layer, is present on the masked partial region 20 and on the surface 14′. Both reflection layers have different layer thicknesses, as a result of which different reflection colors are obtained. At the boundary line 30, the masking 20 is in contact with the layer 22.

(23) FIG. 8 shows a spectacle lens 10 obtained by removing the masking 20, which was applied by means of the inkjet printing method, from the coated spectacle lens 12 from FIG. 7. Together with the inkjet ink, the portion of the coating 22 present thereon is likewise removed. Consequently, the spectacle lens 10 comprises the layer 22 only on the unmasked region of the surface 14′ of the coated spectacle lens 12, whereas the formerly masked region 54 has no layer 22. A light microscope can be used to show that the boundary line 30 has the corresponding pixel structure and corresponding resolution of the inkjet printing method used.

(24) FIG. 9A shows one example of a roughly round spectacle lens 10 according to the disclosure having a surface 14. A masking 42 is provided on the surface 14 of the spectacle lens 10 by means of an inkjet printing method.

(25) FIG. 9B shows the spectacle lens 10 after wiping away the ink together with the layer 22 deposited thereon. A negative of the masking applied by printing is left behind, the negative being visible only by means of the residual reflection.

(26) FIG. 10A shows the surface 14 of a roughly round spectacle lens 10 according to the disclosure. The masked partial region 16 is present in the form of a pattern 42. The enlarged view of the pattern 42 is shown in FIG. 10B and has the applicant's company logo in the present case.

(27) FIG. 11 shows a coated spectacle lens 12 having a first layer 22, which is present on a partial region of the surface, and two further layers 24′, 24″ present thereon and covering the entire surface. The first layer 22 was produced according to the method according to the disclosure and, consequently, is not present in the partial region 16. By contrast, the layer 24′ covers the layer 22 and the surface 14′ in the partial region 16. The layer 22 thus abuts the layer 24′ at the boundary line 30. The layer 24″ completely covers the layer 24′.

(28) FIG. 12 shows the contour edge or boundary line 30 produced by means of an inkjet printing method with 50-fold magnification by a light microscope. The pixel size of the printer of 177.17 px/cm (approximately 450 dpi) is clearly visible. The contour edge or boundary line appears sharp. The resolution is thus sufficient to image, e.g., a data matrix code in accordance with DIN EN ISO 8980-2, section 7.1 for progressive spectacle lenses.

(29) FIG. 13 shows the plan view of spectacles comprising a frame 52. The spectacle lenses 10 are mounted in the frame 52 and each have a pattern 42, which can be perceived in the form of a reflection image.

(30) To summarize, the solutions proposed herein make it possible to produce a high-resolution reflection image in the visible and also non-visible spectral range. The reflection image can have information in the form of a pattern or a marking signal. The method according to the disclosure constitutes an alternative to laser marking and provides additional individualization parameters.

(31) The disclosure is explained in greater detail below by means of some examples, but these do not restrict the disclosure.

(32) I Production of the Spectacle Lenses According to the Disclosure According to the Method According to the Disclosure

Examples 1 to 5: Method According to the Disclosure Using an Antireflection Layer

(33) A spectacle lens semifinished product based on polythiourethane (MR 8, from Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.) with a medium refractive index of 1.598 was provided with a hard layer by dip coating. On the front surface of the spectacle lens semifinished product coated in this way, at least one masking was applied using the inkjet printer X-Cube 01 from Tecoptique in each case in accordance with Table 1 below. YWE (Yellow) from Tecoptique was used as inkjet ink. In the box coater Syrus III from Bühler Leybold Optics GmbH, the spectacle lens semifinished product masked in this way was provided with an antireflection layer composed of six alternating layers of ZrO and SiO.sub.2, beginning with ZrO directly on the hard layer. The masking of the spectacle lens semifinished product coated to completion was removed by means of manual polishing using a cotton cloth impregnated with acetone and the hard layer situated underneath was thus exposed again. The spectacle lens semifinished product thus produced exhibited in each case a sharply delineated reflection image which is clearly visible at suitable angles using test light and which represents an exact negative of the masking applied previously. In order to obtain the dioptric power, the back surface of the spectacle lens semifinished product was mechanically processed in each case.

(34) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Position (in relation to distance Dioptric Basic Example Masking visual point) power curve 1 ZEISS lettering temporal Sphere −2.0 4.0 (3 × 10 mm) diopters diopters 2 ZEISS lettering central Sphere −2.0 4.0 (3 × 10 mm) diopters diopters 3a ZEISS lettering temporal Sphere −3.48 3.0 (3 × 10 mm) diopters, diopters cylinder −0.76 diopter, axis 148° 3b ZEISS lettering temporal Sphere −1.22 4.0 (3 × 10 mm) diopters, diopters cylinder −0.66 diopter, axis 123° 4 ZEISS trademark central Sphere −2.0 4.0 (20 × 20 mm) diopters diopters 5a ZEISS trademark central Sphere −3.48 3.0 (20 × 20 mm) diopters, diopters cylinder −0.76 diopter, axis 148° 5b ZEISS trademark central Sphere −1.22 4.0 (20 × 20 mm) diopters, diopters cylinder −0.66 diopter, axis 123°

Comparative Example 1

(35) The spectacle lens semifinished product from comparative example 1 is identical to the spectacle lens semifinished product from example 1, except that the spectacle lens semifinished product from comparative example 1 was not provided with at least one masking.

Examples 6 to 10: Method According to the Disclosure Using a Reflection Layer

(36) A spectacle lens semifinished product based on polythiourethane (MR 8, from Mitsui Chemicals, Inc) with a medium refractive index of 1.598 was coated with a hard layer by dip coating. On the front surface of the spectacle lens semifinished product thus obtained, a layer of chromium having a layer thickness of 18 nm was applied in the box coater Syrus III from Baler Leybold Optics GmbH. On the thus reflectively coated front surface of the spectacle lens semifinished product, at least one masking was applied using the inkjet printer X-Cube 01 from Tecoptique in each case in accordance with Table 2 below. YWE (Yellow) from Tecoptique was used as inkjet ink. The spectacle lens semifinished product masked in this way was provided with an SiO.sub.2 layer having a layer thickness of 55 nm in a renewed PVD coating step. The masking of the spectacle lens semifinished product coated to completion was removed by means of manual polishing using a cotton cloth impregnated with acetone and the chromium layer situated underneath was thus exposed again. The spectacle lens semifinished product thus produced exhibited in each case an aesthetically sophisticated silver reflection image on an otherwise bronze-colored reflective coating.

(37) TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Position (in relation to distance Dioptric Basic Example Masking visual point) power curve 6 ZEISS lettering temporal Sphere −2.0 4 (3 × 10 mm) diopters diopters 7 ZEISS lettering central Sphere −2.0 4 (3 × 10 mm) diopters diopters 8a ZEISS lettering temporal Sphere −3.48 3.0 (3 × 10 mm) diopters, diopters cylinder −0.76 diopter, axis 148° 8b ZEISS lettering temporal Sphere −1.22 4.0 (3 × 10 mm) diopters, diopters cylinder −0.66 diopter, axis 123° 9 ZEISS trademark central Sphere −2.0 4 (20 × 20 mm) diopters diopters 10a ZEISS trademark central Sphere −3.48 3.0 (20 × 20 mm) diopters, diopters cylinder −0.76 diopter, axis 148° 10b ZEISS trademark central Sphere −1.22 4.0 (20 × 20 mm) diopters, diopters cylinder −0.66 diopter, axis 123°
II Characterization of the Spectacle Lenses Produced According to the Method According to the Disclosure
IIa Examination by Light Microscope

(38) Upon examination by a light microscope (50-fold magnification), the spectacle lens semifinished products in examples 1 to 10 exhibited a clear boundary line between the partial region of the surface which was provided with the masking that was removed again and the surface which was provided without masking. The individual pixels of the masking applied by means of inkjet ink were clearly visibly recognizable in the light microscope micrographs.

(39) IIb Weathering Test

(40) The spectacle lens semifinished products of examples 2 and 4 and the spectacle lens semifinished product in accordance with comparative example 1 were mechanically predamaged in each case in a drum filled with sand, small pieces of abrasive paper and felt at 120 rpm and were then subjected to an accelerated weathering test (test unit: QUV-accelerated weathering test unit with UVA 340 light source, Q-Lab Deutschland GmbH) with 24 exposure cycles. A visual inspection for mechanical damage of the antireflection layer by means of light microscope micrographs with 10-fold magnification revealed no discernible differences between the spectacle lens semifinished products of the examples and the corresponding spectacle lens semifinished product of the comparative example.

(41) IIc Boiling Test

(42) The spectacle lens semifinished products of examples 2 and 4 the spectacle lens semifinished products in accordance with comparative example 1 were introduced into boiling demineralized water for three hours. A visual assessment after subsequent drying revealed no delamination of the antireflection layer on the spectacle lens semifinished products of the examples.

(43) IId Polishing Test

(44) The spectacle lens semifinished products of examples 2 and 4 and the spectacle lens semifinished product in accordance with comparative example 1 were polished 100 times using a cotton cloth impregnated with acetone. According to visual assessment, after these 100 polishing cycles, only minimal differences could be discerned between the spectacle lens semifinished products of the examples and the spectacle lens semifinished product of the comparative example.

(45) The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the disclosure illustrates and describes the present invention. Additionally, the disclosure shows and describes only the exemplary embodiments but, as mentioned above, it is to be understood that the disclosure is capable of use in various other combinations, modifications, and environments and is capable of changes or modifications within the scope of the concept as expressed herein, commensurate with the above teachings and/or the skill or knowledge of the relevant art.

(46) The term “comprising” (and its grammatical variations) as used herein is used in the inclusive sense of “having” or “including” and not in the exclusive sense of “consisting only of.” The terms “a” and “the” as used herein are understood to encompass the plural as well as the singular.

(47) All publications, patents and patent applications cited in this specification are herein incorporated by reference, and for any and all purposes, as if each individual publication, patent or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. In the case of inconsistencies, the present disclosure will prevail.