Systems for and methods of surfacing a composite lens blank with functional layer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018304431-A1
Application number	US-201515768756-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 21, 2015
Priority date	Oct 21, 2015
Publication date	Oct 25, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and processes for generating a finished or semi-finished lens, such as a spectacle lens, from a lens blank that includes an intermediate functional layer. Some embodiments of the process involve locating the functional layer and positioning the lens blank according to the location of the functional layer. The location of the functional layer can be ascertained by measuring the thickness of one or more layers of the lens blank. The lens blank can be surfaced on one or both sides to form a finished or semi-finished lens. Other embodiments are also described.

First claim

1 . A method of making a semi-finished or finished optical lens comprising:
determining the position of at least a portion of a front surface or a back surface of a lens blank and/or the position of at least a portion of at least one of one or more light filtering layers within a lens surfacing system, wherein the one or more light filtering layers are located between the front surface and the back surface and shaping at least a portion of the front surface or the back surface of the lens blank according to shaping instructions, where the instructions comprise shaping map data indicative of a front surface or back surface of the optical lens such that the front surface or the back surface of the optical lens will not intersect with the one or more light filtering layers.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising positioning the lens blank so that at least a portion of the one or more light filtering layers is disposed at a zeroed position on a coordinate axis, where the coordinate axis is an axis that extends between the front surface and the back surface of the lens blank.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the lens blank comprises a first light transmitting layer that defines the front surface and a second light transmitting layer that defines the back surface, and the one or more light filtering layers are located between the first light transmitting layer and the second light transmitting layer.

4 . The method of claim 1 , where determining the position of at least a portion of the front surface or the back surface of the lens blank or the position of at least a portion of at least one of the one or more light filtering layers comprises measuring a thickness of one or more layers of the lens blank with a measurement gauge and determining the position based upon the measured thickness; receiving geometric characteristics data of the lens blank and determining the position based upon the geometric characteristics data; or a combination thereof.

5 . The method of claim 1 , where the position determining step is performed on a first lens blank representative of a plurality of lens blank and where the method further comprises shaping at least a portion of the front surface or the back surface of a second lens blank according to shaping instructions, where the instructions comprise shaping map data indicative of a front surface or back surface of the optical lens such that the front surface or the back surface of the optical lens will not intersect with the one or more light filtering layers.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating instructions to transmit to a lens surfacing tool, where generating instructions further comprises receiving geometric characteristics data of a lens blank and of the semi-finished or finished lens and shifting the geometric characteristics data of one or both of the lens blank or the semi-finished or finished lens so that the one or more light filtering layers intersects with the one or more light filtering layers of the semi-finished or finished lens along substantially the entire perimeter of the semi-finished or finished lens.

7 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising rotating the lens blank to shape the front surface of the back surface not previously surfaced; repositioning the lens blank so that the light filtering layer is disposed at a zeroed position on the coordinate axis; and/or shaping the front surface of the back surface not previously shaped to form a finished optical lens.

8 . The method of claim 1 , where the semi-finished or finished lens defines a front surface and a back surface opposite the front surface and a peripheral surface extending between the front surface and the back surface and comprising a first light-transmitting layer defining the front surface, a second light-transmitting layer defining the back surface, and one or more light-filtering layers located between the first and second light-transmitting layers, where the one or more light filtering layers are exposed at the peripheral surface of the semi-finished or finished lens.

9 . The method of claim 1 , where the finished lens has a first portion having a first diopter and a second portion having a second diopter that is different than the first diopter, and where the first diopter and the second diopter have a difference of at least 0.1 diopters.

10 . The method of claim 9 , where one or both of the first diopter and the second diopter is between −14 diopters to 20 diopters and/or where the back surface at the first portion or the second portion has a radius of curvature of at least 35 mm.

11 . The method of claim 1 , where the finished optical lens is a progressive, aspheric, or optical prism lens; where one or both light-transmitting layers can be thermoset polymers; where the one or more light filtering layers comprises one or more layers that have one or more functionalities selected from photochromic, tinting, polarizing, UV filtering, blue-blocking filtering, IR filtering, neutral density filtering, a mirror function, and anti-reflective function; and/or where the one or more light filtering layers comprises one or more layers selected from photochromic layers, tinted layers, polarizing layers, UV light filter layers, blue light filter layers, IR filter layers, neutral density filter layers, mirror layers, metallized layers, micropatterned layer, electrochromic layer, and an antireflective (AR) layer.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a system controller comprising a microprocessor and memory is configured to execute the process of determining the position of at least a portion of a front surface or a back surface of a lens blank or the position of at least a portion of at least one of one or more light filtering layers within a lens surfacing system; and shaping at least a portion of the front surface or the back surface according to the shaping instructions.

13 . An optical lens produced by a method according to claim 1 .

14 . A system for surfacing a lens blank comprising a first transmitting layer, a second light transmitting layer, and a light filtering layer disposed there between, wherein the system comprises:
a lens surfacing tool; a lens positioning device; a lens mount mechanically coupled to the lens positioning device; an optical thickness measurement gauge; and a system controller comprising a microprocessor and memory,
wherein the system controller is operatively coupled to the surfacing tool, the lens positioning device, and the optical measurement gauge and is configured to execute the process comprising:
transmitting instructions to the lens positioning device for positioning the blank, where the instructions are based at least in part on the thickness of the one or more layers and
transmitting instructions to the lens surfacing tool for shaping the first light transmitting layer, where the instructions comprise shaping map data indicative of a front surface or back surface of an optical lens to be made such that the shaped surface does not intersect with the light transmitting layer.

15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the system controller is further configured to receive data from the optical thickness measurement gauge indicating the thickness of the one or more light filtering layers.

16 . An optical lens produced by a method according to claim 2 .

17 . An optical lens produced by a method according to claim 3 .

18 . An optical lens produced by a method according to claim 4 .

19 . An optical lens produced by a method according to claim 5 .

Assignees

• Essilor Int

Inventors

• Berzon Ronald A
• Jallouli Aref
• Chiu Hao-Wen
• Clark Gary S

Classifications

• G02C7/024

  Methods of designing ophthalmic lenses · CPC title

• B24B13/0055 Primary

  Positioning of lenses; Marking of lenses · CPC title

• B24B47/22

  Equipment for exact control of the position of the grinding tool or work at the start of the grinding operation · CPC title