JPH01118816A - Contact lens cleaning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain cleaning, rinsing and disinfection and to prevent the deformation, damage and loss of a contact lens thereof by inserting the contact lenses between two soft foam cleaning bodies so that they can be housed, giving a vibration to the soft foam cleaning bodies and automatically injecting rinse liquid. CONSTITUTION:The title device is constituted of a housing case 3 for housing the contact lenses 2, a vibrating device 4 which generates the vibration, a boiling circulation circuit 5, an electric control circuit 6, a housing 7 and a slide part 8. And the housing case 3 is provided with upper and lower holders 11 and 12 made of soft rubber and upper and lower soft foam cleaning bodies 13 and 14 made of continuous foaming substances in said holders 11 and 12. By giving the vibration in a state where the soft foam cleaning bodies 13 and 14 press- contacts with the surface of the contact lenses 2 optic fat and protein sticking to the surface of the contact lenses 2 can be removed in a short time with a frictional force and the contact lenses and the unclean cleaning liquid sticking to the cleaning bodies can be rinsed with the injected rinse liquid. Thus, the cleaning, rinsing and disinfection can be executed and the deformation, the damage and the loss of the contact lens can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contact lens cleaning device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In recent years, contact lenses have been used mainly by young women, not only for medical purposes, but also for wearing glasses, as they are highly fashionable. However, it has the disadvantage that it takes time and effort to clean and disinfect. That is, when worn on the eye, eye oil and protein stains in tear fluid and various germs adhere to the lens, as well as stains from hands and the like during handling. Moreover, the dirt causes cloudiness on the lens, making it necessary to clean it at regular intervals. Commercially available contact lenses can be roughly divided into water-containing and non-water-containing types, but especially water-containing contact lenses are porous with many micron-order ventilation holes that allow oxygen to pass through. However, organic contaminants and bacteria can enter these holes, making cleaning and disinfection extremely time-consuming.

The general method for cleaning and disinfecting conventional soft contact lenses is to wash them by hand using a surfactant, then remove proteins using an enzyme or oxidizing agent, and then use a disinfectant to kill bacteria. It required sterilization by boiling for several minutes and rinsing with stored water between each cleaning step.

In addition, as cleaning means other than the above,
There is a method of cleaning contact lenses by vibrating them in a cleaning solution as in Japanese Patent Publication No. 4165, and a method of cleaning contact lenses by vibrating them in a cleaning solution, and as in Japanese Patent Publication No. 16629/1984, the temperature of the cleaning solution is set to 77 to 93°C and the vibration intensity is 1.
A number of cleaning methods have been proposed, such as a method of cleaning with ultrasonic waves of 0 W or more and a frequency range of 20 to 100 KHz.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, the conventional general cleaning method as described above is not only extremely time-consuming, but also frequently causes accidents such as deformation and damage during cleaning, and sometimes there is a possibility of loss. It had the disadvantage of being large.

In addition, the cleaning method disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 104165/1980 has a low cleaning effect, as it cannot sufficiently remove not only proteins but also dirt from the eye oil. Although the cleaning power is improved by using cavitation, it is not sufficient to remove protein stains, and ultrasonic waves have the problem of damaging the surface of soft contact lenses. Moreover, since ultrasonic vibrators generally change due to heat and have a significantly shortened lifespan, they have the disadvantage that it is impossible to use both heating and ultrasonic waves at the same time.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a cleaning device that is capable of cleaning, rinsing, and disinfecting, minimizes the possibility of contact lenses being deformed, damaged, or lost, and is also safe for the eyes. It is something.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the contact lens cleaning device of the present invention has a flexible structure that allows contact lenses to be inserted and stored between two soft foam cleaning bodies. The cleaning device is provided with a storage case having a storage case, a vibration device that vibrates the soft foam cleaning body when the storage case is installed at a predetermined position and operated, and a circulation circuit that automatically injects rinsing liquid.

Function The present invention uses the above-described configuration to clean dirt from contact lenses. By pressing a soft 7-ohm cleaning body onto the contact lens surface and applying vibration, the contact lenses are cleaned by frictional force. In addition to quickly removing eye oil and proteins that have adhered to the surface of the contact lens, the injected rinsing liquid also rinses away the dirty cleaning liquid that has adhered to the contact lens and cleaning body.

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6.

Reference numeral 1 designates a cleaning device comprising a storage case 3 for storing contact lenses 2, a vibration device 4 for generating vibrations, a boiling circulation circuit 6, an electric control circuit 6, a nousing 7, and a slide portion 8. Storage case 3 includes case body 9 and cap 1o
and upper and lower holders molded from soft rubber such as silicone rubber 11.12. ! : The holder 11.12 has upper and lower soft 7-ohm cleaning bodies 13.14 which are open-cell bodies. As the open-cell soft foam cleaning bodies 13 and 14, silicone foam, which is a silicone foam manufactured by Polymer Kaseihin Co., Ltd., was used.

The upper cleaning body 13 is shaped to have a convex surface that follows the curved surface of the contact lens 2, and the lower cleaning body 14 is shaped to have a concave surface. Also, the upper holder 11 is the cap 1
The lower holder 12 is fixed to the sliding base 16. The upper and lower holders 11 and 12 can be crimped and sealed by tightening caps 1° to the case body 9. It should be noted that there are two caps 10, upper and lower holders 11 and 12, and upper and lower cleaning bodies 13 and 14 so that the left and right contact lenses 2 can be cleaned at the same time. The sliding table 16 has a communication passage 16 that connects the left and right lower holders 12, and two vibration receiving holes 17 and 18 that receive vibrations. Also, upper and lower holders 11°12 and caps 1o
are provided with small holes 19,20.

The vibration device 4 includes a DC motor 21, a gear A22 and a gear B23 rotating at the center. It rotates in conjunction with gear C24, gear B23, and gear C24. 1 - Eccentric shafts 25 and 26 that are eccentric from the central axis.

The boiling circulation circuit 5 includes a tank 28 for storing a rinsing liquid 27 which is 0.9% physiological saline, a heating pipe 30 with a Galant tube leg around which a heater 29 is wrapped, and a small pump 31.
It consists of a connecting pipe that connects the slide portion 8 and the slide portion 8. In addition, the tank 28 can be removed by connecting the two connecting parts 32 and 33 at the bottom of the tank 28 to the holes 34 and 36 fixed to the housing 7.
By pushing up the seal valve 38.39 inside the connecting part 32.33 using the pin 36.37 held in the tank 2, it is opened and the rinsing liquid 27 is circulated.
8 is removed, the seal valves 38 and 39 act to prevent the rinsing liquid 27 from leaking out of the tank 28.

Further, a check valve 41 is provided at the inlet portion 40 of the heating pipe 3o, so that even when the rinsing liquid 27 is heated and boils, it does not flow back toward the tank 28, but instead flows toward the small pump 31. It's like that.

The electric control circuit 6 is a circuit for operating the IC timer 12, and is designed to turn off the motor 21 and heater 29 16 minutes after operating the ON switch 43.

The slide portion 8 is composed of a pusher 44, latches 45 and 46, and a spring 47. By pushing the pusher 44, the latches 45 and 46 move left and right. The slide portion 8 also has a water supply port 48 connected to the small pump 31 and a discharge port 49 connected to the tank 28.
is installed in a predetermined position, the slide part 8 is pushed in, and the stop part 49.50 of the housing 7 is fixed to the latch 45.46. It is designed to match with the drain port 49.

Next, a method of cleaning the contact lens 2 with this configuration will be explained.

First, the storage case 3 is taken out, the case body 9 and the cap 1o are separated, and each cleaning body 13, 14 is impregnated with several drops of a predetermined cleaning liquid. The cleaning liquid used in this example was Meniclean manufactured by Menicon Co., Ltd. Next, as the dirty soft contact lens 2, Menicon Soft M stained with artificial eye oil is placed on the concave surface of the lower cleaning body 14, and then the convex surface of the upper cleaning body 13 is aligned with the cap 1.
゜ and the case body 9 are fitted together to close the storage case 3.

In addition, the menicon soft stained with artificial eye oil used here) M
Menicon Soft M manufactured by Menicon Co., Ltd., which had the ingredients shown in the table below, was heated to 60'C and immersed therein for 30 minutes.

Next, the storage case 3 is set in a predetermined position, and the slide portion 8 is closed. Approximately 5 occ of the rinsing liquid 27, which is 0.9% physiological saline, is put into the tank 28, and the ON switch 43 is pressed to operate the cleaning device 1. That is, the DC motor 21 of the vibration device 4 starts rotating, and the gear A22 and the gear B2
3. The eccentric shafts 25 and 26 are rotated by the gear C24.

Furthermore, the eccentric shafts 25 and 26 are connected to the sliding base 1 of the storage case 3.
Since it is fitted with the two vibration receiving holes 17 and 18 of 5,
The vibrations generated in the eccentric shafts 25 and 26 are transmitted to the sliding table 15, and the sliding table 15 begins to vibrate in a circle with a diameter of 2M. Since the case body 9 and the cap 10 of the storage case 3 are fixed by the housing 7 and the slide part 8, they do not vibrate, and only the slide base 15 vibrates. That is, the vibration is transmitted to the lower cleaning body 14 and the upper and lower holders 1
Since 1° 12 is a soft silicone rubber molded body, it has flexibility and vibrations are absorbed there. At that time, on the surface of the contact lens 2 inserted by the upper and lower cleaning bodies 13 and 14,
Since the friction of the cleaning bodies 13 and 14 is slightly generated, the dirt of artificial eye oil adhering to the surface of the contact lens 2 is removed with the help of the surfactant.

Simultaneously with the operation of the cleaning device 1, electricity starts to be applied to the heater 29 wound around the glass-controlled heating pipe 3o of the boiling circulation circuit 5. The rinsing liquid 27 that has entered the tank 28 flows into the heating pipe 3o through the connecting pipe, and the rinsing liquid 27 is heated in the heating pipe 3o to nearly 100°C and boils, causing volumetric expansion.

Since the check valve 41 is provided on the tank 28 side, the boiling water will flow toward the small pump 31 side. The boiling water returns to the tank 28 by energizing the connecting pipe, passing through the water intake port 48 of the slide portion 8, energizing the inside of the storage case 3, and passing through the discharge port 49.

That is, as the rinsing liquid 27 flows through the boiling circulation circuit 5, the cleaning liquid adhering to the upper and lower cleaning bodies 11, 12 and the contact lens 2 is flushed out, and the cleaning is completed. By circulating the rinsing liquid 27 by boiling, it is possible to disinfect the contact lens 2 by boiling it at the same time as cleaning, and disinfection at 100'C for 15 minutes can be said to be complete disinfection. However, in the case of hard contact lenses, the material is acrylic resin, which may cause thermal deformation, so the boiling circulation method is not suitable, and it is necessary to incorporate a pump-type circulation mechanism. In the case of the present invention, by turning off the heater 29 of the heating pipe 3o using the changeover switch 50, it can be used for hard contact lenses. In this case, the small pump 31 is used to pump the rinsing liquid 27.
circulate.

Note that the following conditions were set as the optimum values for the cleaning conditions of the present invention.

Cleaning body pore diameter O, off Im Rotation speed of eccentric shaft 200 Orpm Rotation distance of eccentric shaft 2 circles Circulating water amount 10 to 50 CC/min Here, when the rotation speed was 100 Or pm or less, cleaning power tended to become extremely poor. This is because when the vibration becomes weaker, the inertial force of the lens is lost and it is pulled by either the upper or lower cleaning body, making it difficult to clean one side. Therefore, a rotation speed of at least 1500 rpm is required. It was assumed that Furthermore, the smaller the pore diameter of the cleaning body, the better the cleaning effect, but it has been difficult to reduce the pore diameter to 0.6 W or less due to problems in the manufacturing method of silicone foam. However, although a soft foam with open cells is used for the cleaning body in this embodiment, it is also possible to use a soft foam with closed cells by injecting the rinsing liquid into the joint between the upper and lower cleaning bodies. However, considering the ease of pouring the rinsing liquid and the fact that the entire foam can be sterilized by boiling, it is better to use open-cell soft foam as the cleaning body.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, one motor is used as a driving force to drive two eccentric shafts that rotate eccentrically in the same direction.
Although the sliding table was rotated and vibrated, it is also possible to apply vibration on the -axis. However, in that case, it is not possible to apply a constant amplitude to the entire sliding table, which not only reduces the cleaning effect, but also
Since it is possible that a part of the slide table may come into contact with the storage case body and generate abnormal noise, it is better to use two eccentric shafts that rotate eccentrically in the same direction as vibration sources.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention provides a flexible storage case in which contact lenses can be inserted and stored between two soft foam cleaning bodies, and the storage case is installed in a predetermined position. A contact lens cleaning device characterized by being provided with a vibration device that vibrates the soft foam cleaning body and a circulation circuit that automatically injects a rinsing liquid when the device is operated, and the device is turned on. The automatic cleaning of contact lenses with just one touch has the following effects:

0) Easy one-touch cleaning of contact lenses,
It can be sterilized without the hassle and time required in the past.

@) It can be cleaned and disinfected with one touch, reducing the possibility of losing it.

(3) Cleaning with soft foam eliminated damage to contact lenses.

(4) Dirt such as eye oil on the surface of contact lenses can be completely removed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a plan sectional view of a contact lens cleaning device showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front sectional view of the same device, Fig. 3 is a front sectional view of a contact lens storage case, and Fig. 4 5 is a front view of the nullide part, FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view thereof, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the device. 1... Cleaning device, 2... Contact lenses, 3... Storage case, 4... Vibrating body, 6... Circulating circuit, 13.14...
Cleaning body, 25.26... Eccentric shaft. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person! −
- Washing Nagasato Figure 1 1 - Washing water rack 1 3 - Assembling case Figure 2 2 - One foot tact ratio Figure 3 5 - Angle - Zero axis Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A flexible storage case that allows contact lenses to be inserted and stored between two soft foam cleaning bodies, and when the storage case is installed in a predetermined position and operated, the soft foam cleaning A contact lens cleaning device characterized by being equipped with a vibration device that vibrates the body and a circulation circuit that automatically injects rinsing liquid. (2) A vibration device that vibrates the soft foam cleaning body,
The contact lens cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that the contact lens cleaning device uses one motor as a driving force and has two eccentric shafts that rotate eccentrically in the same direction.