Additive manufacturing for transparent ophthalmic lens

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016167299-A1
Application number	US-201314909160-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 31, 2013
Priority date	Jul 31, 2013
Publication date	Jun 16, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Presented herein is a method of manufacturing a three-dimensional ophthalmic lens using additive manufacturing. The method includes constituting voxels of one or more compositions, wherein at least one of the compositions includes one or more pre-polymers or polymers, and inducing connectivity between the voxels, thereby creating one or more incremental elements, repeating the constitution steps, and performing a final post-treatment. Also presented herein is an ophthalmic lens obtained by this method. The lens has good homogeneity and optical clarity, reduced shrinkage, and improved geometric accuracy and thermo-mechanical properties.

First claim

1 . A method for Additive Manufacturing of a three-dimensional, transparent, ophthalmic lens, the method comprising the following steps:
/1/ constituting a first voxel of a first composition comprising at least one polymer or pre-polymer; /2/ constituting a second voxel of a second composition comprising at least a polymer or pre-polymer; /3/ inducing connectivity between the constituted first and second voxels, thereby creating an incremental intermediate element (p); /4/ repeating steps /2/ and /3/ with successive additional voxels (n+1, n+2, . . . N), creating incremental intermediate elements (p+1, p+2, . . . P), thereby forming the three-dimensional, transparent, ophthalmic lens.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second compositions are different.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second compositions are identical.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second compositions comprise different polymers or pre-polymers.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second compositions comprise identical polymers or pre-polymers.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one polymer is selected from the group consisting of: polyacrylics, polyols, polyamines, polyamides, polyanhydrides, polycarboxilic acids, polyepoxides, polyisocyanates, polynorbornenes, polysiloxanes, polysilazanes, polystyrenes, polyolefinics, polyesters, polyimides, polyurethanes, polythiourethanes, polycarbonates, polyallylics, polysulfides, polyvinylesters, polyvinylethers, polyarylenes, polyoxides, polysulfones, poly cyclo olefins, polyacrylonitriles, polyethylene terephthalates, polyetherimides, and polypentenes.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the pre-polymer is selected from the group consisting of: polyacrylics, polyols, polyamines, polyamides, polyanhydrides, polycarboxilic acids, polyepoxides, polyisocyanates, polynorbornenes, polysiloxanes, polysilazanes, polystyrenes, polyolefinics, polyesters, polyimides, polyurethanes, polythiourethanes, polycarbonates, polyallylics, polysulfides, polyvinylesters, polyvinylethers, polyarylenes, polyoxides, and polysulfones, poly cyclo olefins, polyacrylonitriles, polyethylene terephthalates, polyetherimides, polypentenes.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the polymers or pre-polymers comprises at least one thermoplastic.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the at least one thermoplastic is a solid particle, including powder, beads, and rods.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the at least one thermoplastic is selected from the group consisting of: polyolefinics such as cyclo olefin polymers, polyacrylates such as polymethyl(meth)acrylate, poly(meth)acrylate, polyethyl(meth)acrylate, polybutyl(meth)acrylate, polyisobutyl(meth)acrylate, polyesters, polyamides, polysiloxanes, polyimides, polyurethanes, polythiourethanes, polycarbonates, polyallylics, polysulfides, polyvinyls, polyarylenes, polyoxides, and polysulfones, and blends thereof.

11 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising during step /3/, melting, fusing, sintering, or bonding particles of the at least one thermoplastic.

12 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising during step /4/, melting, fusing, sintering, or bonding particles of the at least one thermoplastic.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the Additive Manufacturing process is selected from the group consisting of: scanning laser sintering (SLS), scanning laser melting (SLM), fused deposition modeling (FDM), and ink-jet printing.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein step /4/ further comprises subjecting at least one voxel and at least one incremental intermediate element to at least one mechanical, physical or chemical treatment.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the treatment further comprises thermal radiation, convective heating, conductive heating, cooling, chilling, infra-red, microwave, UV radiation, visible light radiation, evaporation, or exposing the at least one voxel to a temperature which is below the temperature used at the constitution step of at least one of the voxels.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein step /4/ comprises subjecting at least one voxel and at least one intermediate element to evaporation or cooling.

17 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising an additional step /5/ of performing an additional treatment on at least a portion of an intermediate element or the ophthalmic lens, after step /4/, to improve homogenization of the ophthalmic lens.

18 . The method as in claim 17 , wherein the additional treatment comprises at least one of: UV radiation, IR radiation, micro-wave radiation, thermal annealing, solvent evaporation, drying, and combinations thereof.

19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first composition and second composition are different, and wherein the voxels are alternately constituted of the first and second compositions.

20 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the voxels are constituted in a predetermined pattern of the first and second compositions.

21 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of constituting a first layer of voxels of the first composition and a second layer of voxels of the second composition.

22 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one polymer or pre-polymer of the first composition comprises a thermoplastic polycarbonate (PC) material.

23 . The method of claim 22 , wherein step /1/further comprises melt-extruding a first set of voxels of the first composition onto a substrate for use with a print-head.

24 . The method of claim 22 , wherein the PC material has a relatively high molecular weight of greater than about Mn>14,000.

25 . The method of claim 22 , wherein step /2/ further comprises constituting a second series of voxels of the second composition onto the first series of voxels, wherein the second composition is a powder or liquid.

26 . The method of claim 22 , wherein the at least one polymer or pre-polymer of the second composition has a relatively low molecular weight of less than about Mn<14,000 and has a lower melting temperature than the first composition.

27 . The method of claim 26 , wherein the at least one polymer or pre-polymer of the second composition has a refractive index in the range of about 0.02 to about 0.001 of the first composition.

28 . The method of claim 25 , further comprising heating of at least the second series of voxels of the second composition.

29 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step /5/, after step /4/, comprising at least one treatment, wherein the treatment further comprises thermal radiation, convective heating, conductive heating, cooling, chilling, infra-red, microwave, UV, visible light, crosslinking, evaporation, or exposing the at least one voxel to a temperature which is below the temperature used at the constitution step of at least one of the voxels of thermal or UV radiation, or annealing.

30 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one polymer or pre-polymer comprises a thermoplastic polystyrene, polysulfone, or polyamide.

31 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first composition further comprises at least one monomer.

32 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second composition further comprises at least one monomer.

33 . The method o

Assignees

• Essilor Int

Inventors

• Jallouli Aref
• Berzon Ronald A
• Keita Gabriel
• Habassi Chefix

Classifications

• G02C7/022

  Ophthalmic lenses having special refractive features achieved by special materials or material structures (G02C7/049 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B33Y30/00

  Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor · CPC title

• B29K2105/0058

  Liquid or visquous · CPC title

• B29L2011/0016

  Lenses · CPC title

• B29D11/00009

  Production of simple or compound lenses · CPC title