KR100586158B1 - Hard flexible contact lens manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a hard flexible contact lens comprising a hard material including a central optical zone, and a semi-hard material and a soft material concentrically with respect to the remaining parts except the optical zone. It is about.

Hard, semi-hard, soft, hard flexible contact lenses, hard contact lenses, soft contact lenses

Description

Hard flexible contact lens manufacturing method {omitted}

1 is a view showing the structure of a soft flexible contact lens according to the present invention.

Figure 2 is a view showing the female mold for hard, semi-rigid, soft material portion.

3 is a schematic diagram of manufacturing a lens by cutting a laminate formed in a polymerization mold.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of manufacturing a lens by cutting the laminated body made by cutting the material layer formed in the lower convex into a lathe and forming the upper material layer in a laminate.

5 is a schematic view of manufacturing a lens by cutting the upper surface of the laminate made using a polymerization frame in which a convex surface having the same shape as the inner surface of the lens is formed.

<Description of the code | symbol about the principal part of drawing>

1: hard material part 2: semi-hard material part

3: soft material part 4: laminated body

5: female mold for hard material part 6: mold for hard material part

7: Female mold for semi-hard material part 8: Male mold for semi-hard material part

9: Female mold for soft material part 10: Male mold for soft material part

11: polymerization frame

The purpose of the contact lens is to correct the visual acuity for correcting the refractive error, but unlike the eyeglasses, wearing is also very important problem because it is worn on the eye. There are two types of contact lenses aimed at correcting refractive errors, one being a hard contact lens and the other being a soft contact lens.

Hard contact lenses, such as methyl methacrylate, are made of materials with high safety and hardness. These lenses are suitable for visual acuity correction in patients with severe astigmatism or irregular corneas, and have a long life and easy cleaning. And easy to remove. Although the lens using methyl methacrylate as the main material is an optically excellent material, oxygen does not penetrate, which may interfere with the metabolism of corneal cells from a physiological point of view, which may cause various side effects such as corneal edema. .

Recently, Rigid gas permeable contactlens, which are hard contact lenses, have been developed and popularized. This RGP contact lens has the optical advantages of conventional hard contact lenses and also allows oxygen to pass through, thus reducing the effects on the metabolism of the cornea, thereby providing a sense of stability.It is also free from side effects such as corneal edema than conventional methyl methacrylate lenses. It has advantages.

Soft contact lenses are larger in diameter than hard contact lenses and are hydrophilic with 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone. Lenses made of these materials have soft properties, so the foreign body feels when the lens touches and the pressure on the cornea is less than that of hard lenses. In addition, the lens completely covers the cornea, which increases resistance to external debris and easily adapts to the eye without losing the lens even under severe movements, providing comfort and stability. However, flexible contact lenses for correcting vision of severe corneal patients with severe astigmatism are extremely difficult to manufacture due to limitations of soft materials.

The flexible flexible contact lens of the present invention, which overcomes the advantages and disadvantages of the hard contact lens and the flexible contact lens as described above, is a contact lens having the advantages of the hard contact lens and the flexible contact lens, and is a new contact lens bonded to a heterogeneous material. It is a contact lens that overcomes the internal problem of optical and fit, which is different from conventional lenses, and consists of a hard material in the center of the optical zone, which is an excellent optical advantage of hard contact lenses, namely astigmatism and irregular astigmatism. Utilizes the best advantages in correcting the vision of the eyes, but consists of hard materials and soft materials other than the optical zone to overcome the disadvantages caused by hard materials such as eye pressure, corneal epithelial damage, position instability and poor fit. Contact with advantages such as excellent fit of lens and oxygen permeability As a lens, and a method of manufacturing the same for the purpose of providing.

In the flexible flexible contact lens of the present invention, the optical zone portion of the lens center is made of a hard material, and the remaining portion except the optical zone portion is composed of a semi-hard material and a soft material.

The structure of the soft flexible contact lens of the present invention, as shown in Figure 1, as a spherical lens, various curves are formed on the front and rear, it is hardly angled or processed in a straight line. Looking at the structure in detail, first, the hard material portion is composed of a size including the optical zone in the center of the lens, the front of the hard material portion (RP) has a power curve (PC) in charge of the optical zone (OZ) The other edges except hard material are composed of semi-hard material (SP1) and soft material (SP2), and the front curve (FC) is formed for thickness and balance of the whole lens. A tailored lens reference curvature BC and a bevel B for improving tear circulation and fit are formed.

In order to be a good contact lens, the optical zone portion should be a hard transparent material capable of maintaining excellent optical properties, and oxygen permeability should be better for metabolism of the cornea and have necessary properties such as shape stability and durability. Except for the optical zone, the remaining portion is preferably made by copolymerizing a raw material (monomer) having soft properties so as to maintain a feeling of wearing such as a soft contact lens.

In the case of hard contact lenses, visual acuity correction of corneal astigmatism is possible because there is a hard material portion in which an optical zone is formed like the lens of the present invention, and the reason why the soft contact lenses are better in vulnerability than the hard contact lenses is that of the present invention. This is due to the softness of the material itself at the edges, like the lens.

Therefore, the contact lens of the present invention has a hard material portion having a good hardness in the size including an optical zone in the center, and the remaining portions except for this portion have a semi-hard material portion and a soft material portion that is a soft material.

In the present invention, examples of the raw material of the hard material portion, semi-hard material portion, the soft material portion as shown in the following table, the lens material used in each portion is used or include the raw materials (Monomers) illustrated in the table It may be used alone or in combination, and there may be a variety of other raw materials, and since the technology is being performed in the conventional hard contact lens or soft contact lens manufacturing field, detailed descriptions such as raw materials and mixing ratios will be omitted. In the soft flexible contact lens of the present invention, the optical zone in the center is composed of a hard material having excellent vision correction effect, and the remaining part is composed of a semi-hard material and a soft material. There is not that. The reason why the semi-hard material portion is further formed between the hard material portion and the soft material portion is that when the contact lens is manufactured using only the hard material portion and the soft material portion, the portion made of the hard material and the portion made of the soft material are changed according to the difference in water content. Since the degree of expansion is different, when worn on the eye, irregular wrinkles are severely generated at the boundary part, so that the hard material part, the semi-hard material part, and the soft material part are sequentially formed so as not to wrinkle at the boundary part. Therefore, the more subdivided the semi-hard material into several levels of sub-hard material, the less likely it is that unwanted wrinkles occur at the boundary.However, considering the cost of manufacturing, the hard, semi-hard and soft material parts are considered. It is also possible to manufacture a high level of soft flexible contact lens.

Abbreviations in the table are as follows.

MMA (Methyl methacrylate): Methyl methacrylate

GM (Glycidyl methacrylate): Glycidyl methacrylate

TFEM (2,2,2-Trifluorethyl methacrylate): 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl methacrylate

TEM (2- (trimethylsilyloxy) ethyl methacrylate): 2- (trimethylsiloxy) ethyl methacrylate

TSPM (3- [Tris (trimethylsilyloxy) sily] propyl methacrylate: 3- [tris (trimethylsiloxy) silyl] propyl methacrylate

HEMA (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate): 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate

MA (Mathacrylic acid): methacrylic acid

NV- (N-Vinyl-2-pyrrolidone): N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone

EDMA (Ethylene glycol dimethacrylate): Ethylene glycol dimethacrylate

The present invention is a contact lens having both the excellent optical due to the hard material on the center of the lens and the softness of the soft edge of the lens as described above, providing a high vision correction effect and excellent feeling of wearing when the eyes are snowy. It is a contact lens having.

Looking at the manufacturing method of the hard flexible contact lens of the present invention configured as described above are as follows.

First, as shown in Figure 2, after the injection of the raw material of the hard material into the hard mold for the hard material site and polymerized to form a hard material site, the molded hard material site is placed in the semi-hard material site Injecting and polymerizing a semi-hard material to form a semi-hard material part integrally with the edge of the hard material part, and then integrally formed the hard material part and the semi-hard material part in the female mold for soft material part. There is a method of manufacturing a lens by injecting and polymerizing a flexible material and molding the flexible material portion integrally with the edge of the semi-hard material portion.

In the field of contact lens manufacturing, manufacture using a female mold is a common technique, but the main aspect of the present invention is to first mold a hard material part including an optical zone into a set of female molds, and then another mold (a semi-rigid material). Inject the semi-hard material into the mold and place the hard material at the edge of the hard material, and then use another set of molds (soft). Injecting a soft material material into the mold while the hard material part and the semi-hard material part previously molded into the mold part are inserted into the mold and forming the soft material part integrally with the edge of the semi-hard material part. Laminations in which hard material parts are molded and semi-hard material parts and soft material parts are sequentially formed in concentric circles. A will that hard-soft contact lens of the present invention by cutting in manufacturing the shelves. At this time, as shown in Figure 2, the female molds (hard mold for hard materials, female mold for semi-hard materials, female mold for soft materials), the mold groove of the mold is different, so the separate mold However, the molds (the molds for hard materials, the molds for semi-hard materials, and the molds for soft materials) may be molds of the same shape without having to be distinguished.

In addition, the semi-hard material portion or the soft material portion is a series of molding methods in which a series of finer female molds are provided, and then softer raw materials are sequentially injected into the mold and polymerized. It is also possible to construct multiple material sections further divided by lowering materials.

In addition, as shown in Figure 3, a suitable amount of a hard material raw material is added to the polymerization mold and polymerized, and then a semi-hard material raw material is polymerized, and then a raw material of soft material is added and polymerized. After making a laminate of hard, semi-rigid, and soft material, there is a method of manufacturing a lens by cutting the upper and lower surfaces of the laminate with a shelf.

Third, as shown in FIG. 4, a suitable amount of a flexible material is added to the polymerization mold, followed by polymerization, and then a semi-hard material is added to the polymerization, and then a hard material is added and polymerized. Thereafter, there is a method of manufacturing a lens by making a laminate of ductile, semi-rigid, and hard materials, and then cutting upper and lower surfaces of the laminate with a lathe.

It is apparent that the second and third methods are the same technology, except that the hard material portion and the soft material portion are interchanged and molded in the polymerization mold. A technique for manufacturing a contact lens by cutting a laminate made from a polymerization mold with a lathe is a commonly known technique. However, the polymerization mold is hollow because of the characteristics of cutting the upper and lower surfaces of the laminate with a lathe to manufacture a lens. It is preferable that the transparent cylindrical container shape of the upper and lower portions are opened and closed by a lid, and the inner laminate is cut into a lens shape while the outer peripheral surface of the polymerization mold is bitten by the shelf jig.

Further, in the second or third method, as shown in Figure 4, the lower material layer is convex or concave to the shelf between the step of polymerizing the lower material layer and the step of introducing the raw material of the upper material layer. Cutting may be further included. As described above, when the upper surface of the lower layer is cut and then the upper surface is molded, when the laminate is cut and formed into a lens shape, the material layer is different from that produced by cutting the laminate made of a horizontal layer into a lens shape. In order to increase or decrease the area of the binding boundary surface of the area consisting of, it is to be considered not only to increase the binding force but also to prevent irregular wrinkles that may occur at the boundary due to the difference in moisture content of different material layers when worn on the eye. It can be.

Fourth, as shown in Figure 5, after the polymerization of the flexible material is put into the polymerization frame is formed a convex surface of the same shape as the inner surface of the lens (the surface in contact with the eye in the state of wearing on the eye) Then, a semi-hard material is added and polymerized, and then a hard, semi-hard, and hard material is laminated in a series of ways by adding and polymerizing the hard material, and then using a shelf on the outer surface of the lens (eyeball). There is a method of manufacturing a lens by cutting the upper surface of the laminate in the same shape as the outer surface in a worn state.

In the present invention, the polymerization method includes a thermal polymerization method that heats and heats the polymerization and an ultraviolet polymerization method using ultraviolet rays. Such polymerization technology is a known technique carried out by those skilled in the art.

When a dry lens manufactured by any one of the methods of the present invention is immersed in a saline solution (0.9% NaCl solution) heated at 70 to 90 ° C. for 2 hours or more, a finished contact lens is obtained. Technology.

In order to make the lens, a number of raw materials (Monomer) and the amount of the raw materials can be increased or decreased, and the design of the lens can be modified, and the part is made of three levels of hard material parts, semi-hard material parts, and soft material parts. You can also give

That is, in the soft flexible contact lens of the present invention, a circular hard material portion including an optical zone is formed at the center thereof, and a semi-hard material portion is integrally formed at the edge of the hard material portion, and the edge of the semi-hard material portion is formed. It characterized in that the flexible material portion is molded integrally.

In addition, the semi-hard material portion or the soft material portion may be further composed of a plurality of subdivided material parts to a material that is lower in hardness as it goes toward the edge direction.

A power curve for the optical zone is formed on the front surface of the hard material portion, and a semi-hard material portion and a soft material portion are formed on the remaining edge portions except the hard material portion, and the front curve is formed for the thickness and balance of the entire lens. On the back of the lens, a bevel for lens reference curvature and tear circulation and wearing comfort is formed according to the shape of the eye.

In the method of manufacturing a hard flexible contact lens of the present invention configured as described above, a hard material portion is injected into a male mold for hard material and polymerized to form a hard material portion, and then the molded hard material portion is made of a semi-hard material. Placed in the male and female mold for the part, the raw material of the semi-hard material is injected and polymerized to form the semi-hard material part integrally with the edge of the hard material part, and then the hard material part and the semi-hard material part which are integrally formed and molded are soft material. It is placed in the male and female mold for the part, and the soft material part is integrally formed with the edge of the semi-hard material part by injecting and polymerizing the soft material material.The hard material part having the size including the optical zone in the center and the remaining edges It can be produced by molding a semi-hard material portion and a soft material portion.

In addition, the semi-hard material portion or the soft material portion is a series of molding processes in which a series of fine-grained male and female molds are provided to sequentially inject and polymerize softer raw materials into a mold, and have a lower hardness as it moves toward the edge direction. It is also possible to construct a number of material sections further divided by paper.

In another method for producing a hard flexible contact lens of the present invention, an appropriate amount of a hard material is added to a polymerization mold and polymerized, and then a raw material of a semi-hard material is added and polymerized, and then a raw material of a soft material is added and polymerized. There is a method of manufacturing a lens by making a laminate of rigid, semi-rigid, and soft material in a series of methods, and then cutting the upper and lower surfaces of the laminate with a lathe.

In addition, an appropriate amount of a flexible material is added to the polymerization mold, followed by polymerization, and then a semi-hard material is added and polymerized, and then a hard, semi-hard, and hard material is added in a series of methods. After the laminate is made, there is a method of manufacturing a lens by cutting the upper and lower surfaces of the laminate with a lathe.

In the two methods using the polymerization frame, the method further comprises the step of cutting the lower material layer into a convex or concave lathe between the step of polymerizing the lower material layer and the step of inputting the raw material of the upper material layer. Can be.

In addition, a polymer material is added to a polymerization mold in which a convex surface having the same shape as the inner surface of the lens (the surface in contact with the eye when worn on the eye) is polymerized, and then the semi-rigid material is again polymerized. After inputting and polymerizing, the raw material of hard material is added and polymerized to make a stack of soft, semi-hard, and hard materials, and then the shelf is placed on the outer surface of the lens (outside while wearing eyeballs) and The lens of the present invention may be manufactured by cutting the upper surface of the laminate in the same shape.

As described above, the hard flexible contact lens according to the present invention can have an excellent visual acuity correcting effect of a conventional hard contact lens and at the same time have a good fit like a soft contact lens. As good as possible contact lenses.

Claims (9)

delete delete delete A hard material portion (1) is formed by injecting and polymerizing a hard material raw material into the hard water mold (5, 6) and then molding the hard material portion (1). 7, 8) and the semi-hard material is injected into the raw material of the hard material part (1) integrally with the edge of the hard material part (1), and then molded and bonded integrally (1) ) And the semi-hard material part (2) are placed in the female mold (9, 10) for soft material parts, the raw material of the soft material is injected and polymerized, the soft material part (3) integrally with the edge of the semi-hard material part (2) ), A method of manufacturing a hard flexible contact lens for forming a hard material portion (1) having a size including an optical zone in the center, a semi-hard material portion (2) and a soft material portion (3) of the remaining edges. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the semi-hard material portion (2) or the soft material portion (3) is provided with a series of shaping female molds, and a series of molding processes in which softer raw materials are sequentially injected into the mold and polymerized. Hardening contact lens manufacturing method characterized in that it further comprises a plurality of material parts subdivided into a material that is lower in hardness while going in the edge direction. After adding an appropriate amount of hard material to the polymerization mold 11 to polymerize, and then adding a semi-hard material to polymerize it, and then adding a soft material and polymerizing it, a series of methods of hard (1) and semi A method of manufacturing a hard flexible contact lens, comprising: producing a laminate (4) made of a rigid (2) and a flexible (3) material and then cutting the upper and lower surfaces of the laminate (4) with a lathe. After adding an appropriate amount of a soft material to the polymerization mold 11 and polymerizing it, and then adding a semi-hard material to polymerize it, and then adding a hard material and polymerizing it in a series of manners. A hard flexible contact lens manufacturing method characterized in that a hard (2) and a laminated body (4) made of a hard material (1) are made, and then the upper and lower surfaces of the laminated body (4) are cut by a lathe to manufacture a lens. The method of claim 6 or 7, further comprising the step of cutting the lower material layer into a convex or concave lathe between the step of polymerizing the lower material layer and the step of introducing the raw material of the upper material layer. Hard flexible contact lens manufacturing method characterized in that. After polymerizing a flexible raw material into the polymerization mold 11 in which the convex surface having the same shape as the inner surface of the lens (the surface in contact with the eye while wearing the eyeball) is polymerized, the semi-rigid raw material is again polymerized. And polymerized, and then a stack of soft (3), semi-hard (2), and hard (1) materials was made in a series of methods by adding and polymerizing a hard material and then lathe A method for manufacturing a hard flexible contact lens, characterized in that for manufacturing a lens by cutting the upper surface of the laminate (4) in the same shape as the outer surface (outer surface worn on the eyeball).

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