Package making – With means responsive to a sensed condition – Separate delivery of incomplete or defective contents or...
Reissue Patent
1999-11-18
2001-11-06
Kim, Eugene (Department: 3721)
Package making
With means responsive to a sensed condition
Separate delivery of incomplete or defective contents or...
C053S251000, C053S495000, C053S543000
Reissue Patent
active
RE037432
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of manufacturing ophthalmic lenses, especially molded, hydrophilic contact lenses, and more specifically to an automated apparatus for handling and preparing contact lenses for inspection and packaging.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
The molding of hydrophilic contact lenses is disclosed in U.S. Pat No. 4,495,313 to Larsen; U.S. Pat No. 4,640,489 to Larsen, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,336 to Larsen et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,664 to Larsen et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,459 to Larsen et al., all of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
These prior art references disclose a contact lens production process wherein each lens is formed by sandwiching a monomer or monomer mixture between a front curve (lower) mold section and back curve (upper) mold section, carried in a two by four mold array. The monomer is polymerized, thus forming a lens which is then removed from the mold sections and further treated in a hydration bath and packaged for consumer use.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,080,839 and 5,094,609 disclose respectively a process for hydrating contact lenses and a chamber for hydrating contacts lenses formed with a monomer or monomer mixtures disclosed in the forgoing patents. The process disclosed in these patents significantly reduces the thruput time by hydrating the lens and releasing the lens from the mold cavity with the deionized water and a small amount of surfactant without any salts, so that the time consuming ionic neutralization of the polymer from which the lens blank is made does not occur during the hydration process. When deionized water is used, the final step of the process is to introduce buffered saline solution into the final package with the lens and then seal the lens within the package so that the final lens equilibrium (ionic neutralization, final hydration and final lens dimensioning) is accomplished in the package at room temperature or during sterilization.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,820, also assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a final package for a contact lens, wherein the package is formed from a transparent polypropylene blister and a foil laminate that is heat sealed thereto.
While U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,080,839 and 5,094,609 contemplate that the entire hydration process and transfer to final packaging may take place in a fully automated fashion, and while the chamber and process described in the foregoing patents enabled automated handling of the lens during hydration, suitable automated equipment to prepare the lenses for inspection and to handle the lenses at high production rates to implement the methods thereof in a fully automated apparatus was not readily available or taught by the prior art
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Recent developments in the inspection of contact lenses produced in accordance with the foregoing methods has enabled automated lens inspection, as taught in U.S. Ser. No. 07/993,756, now U.S. Ser. No. 08/598,069 entitled “Lens Inspection Method and Apparatus”, (VTN 0037) assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Further, recent developments in the hydration and automated handling of wet contact lenses, as taught in U.S. Ser. No. 08/258,556, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,111 “Automated Method and Apparatus for Hydrating Soft Contact Lenses” (Docket 8998), also assigned to the assignee in the present invention, has enabled automatic robotic handling of lenses during hydration, and prior to the inspection thereof by the automated lens inspection system.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an automated apparatus for handling and preparing contact lenses for inspection. It is further an object of the present invention to provide an automated apparatus for handling and preparing contact lenses for inspection and packaging wherein the lenses are inspected and packaged in the same carrier.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a robotic device for transferring a plurality of soft contact lenses from a first processing station to a second processing station wherein the robotic device includes an adjustable array of convex contact lens carriers thereon. The adjustable array is particularly useful for transferring contact lenses between processing stations wherein the first station includes a plurality of first contact lens carriers arranged in a first array with each of said carriers having a concave lens holding surface and a contact lens to be transferred therein. Each of these concave lens holding surfaces may also define a first fluid port for introducing a fluid between the concave surface and the lens. The robotic head which facilitates transfer of the lens between the processing station includes a plurality of second contact lens carriers in an adjustable array with each of the second carriers having a convex lens attachment surface which receives a contact lens thereon, and a second port for introducing a fluid between the contact lens and the convex lens convex surface. The robotic device may be equipped with articulated motorized arms and a control circuit for moving the robotic transfer head between the first and the second processing stations, and may further include a fluid supply means for supplying a fluid to the first and second fluid ports to thereby transfer the lens therebetween. The second processing station may include a second frame having a plurality of third contact lens carriers arranged thereon in a third array for receiving the contact lenses transferred thereto, wherein the arrangement of third array of contact lens carriers is not the same as the arrangement as the first array of first contact lens carriers, and the robotic transfer head includes an adjustable array for matching the first frame for contact lens pickup, thus changing its configuration to match the second frame for contact lens discharge.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide for transfer of the lens between carriers with degassed and deionized water to facilitate the inspection thereof in the automatic inspection means. It is further an object of the present invention to provide a device for removing air bubbles that may have formed on the surface of the lens prior to the inspection thereof in the automatic lens inspection system.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide an improved method of inspecting molded contact lenses wherein the lenses are inspected in deionized and degassed water to minimize the formation of air bubbles which would create false negative automatic lens inspection data.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide an improved method for manufacturing soft contact lenses wherein the lenses are first molded in disposable contact mold frames, and then hydrated and inspected in degassed and deionized water, and then packaged in a saline solution to enable the Lime consuming ionic neutralization of the polymerized lens to occur in the final package. It Is further an object of the present invention to provide the foregoing method of manufacturing with a consolidation step for removing defective lenses from the line of inspected lenses prior to packaging.
It is another object of the present invention provide for inspection of the contact lens in degassed and deionized water and to provide for the automatic removal of the deionized water following inspection thereof.
Finally, it is an object of the present invention to provide for a transfer of the contact lenses from the hydration station to the inspection station with a bubble blow off station to remove air bubbles that would otherwise create false negative automatic lens inspection reports.
While the invention is described with particular reference to molded contact lenses wherein the lens has been molded between a first and second mold half, as described in U.S. Ser. No. 08/258,654 “Consolidated Contact Lens Molding” (Docket 9016) it is understood the present consolidation apparatus is equally suitable for the consolidation of lenses formed by lathe cutting wherein the hydrogel is ma
Edwards Russell James
Gundersen Borge Peter
Holley William Edward
Keene Darren Scott
Kindt-Larsen Ture
Johnson & Johnson Vision Products Inc.
Kim Eugene
LandOfFree
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