Johnson & Johnson Vision Products Inc.

Johnson and Johnson Vision Care, Inc.

Other

The University of Arizona

Vision Products, LLC

Russell J Edwards

Borge Peter Gundersen

Daniel Tsu-Fang Wang

Thomas Christian Ravn

Richard W Abrams

William Edward Holley

John Mark Lepper

Darren S Keene

Mark E Schlagel

Ture Kindt-Larsen

Wallace Anthony Martin

James A Ebel

Masao Funo

Kiyoshi Imai

Mary L Dolan

Hirokazu Kitagawa

Svend Christensen

Niels Jorgen Madsen

Peter W Sites

Kenneth L Cagle

Charles R Hood

Thomas C Ravin

Matthew Brian Dubin

Simon Prince

Jonathan Patrick Adams

Robert E Fischer

John E Studer

Russell T Spaulding

Gregory Scott Duncan

Gregory A Williby

Gary S Hall

John Edward Greivenkamp, Jr

Olin W Calvin

Greg Moeller

Paul Hudson

Shawn Mulcahey

Tomoichi Watanabe

Niels J&oslash;rgen Madsen

Niels Jo Madsen

Matt Dubin

Michael Sherwood

John C Hootman

Syed Tariq Shafaat

John Edward Greivenkamp

John Edward Greivenkamp Jr

Methods for inspecting ophthalmic lenses with different wavelengths of radiation are disclosed herein.

Multiple radiation inspection of ophthalmic lenses

Method of determining the optimal wavelength for inspecting ophthalmic lenses

Modified MZ (Mach-Zender) interferometers are utilized to analyze the transmitted, aspherical wavefront of an ophthalmic lens by mounting the lens in a cuvette having a rotatable carousel that can hold multiple lenses. Fresh, temperature controlled, saline solution is circulated about the lenses, and the cuvette is positioned in a vertical test arm of the interferometer configuration. Reverse raytracing is utilized to remove aberrations induced into the wavefront as it is imaged from immediately behind the lens to the detector of the interferometer.

Cuvette for ophthalmic lens

Methods, systems and apparatuses for inspecting tinted ophthalmic parts are disclosed.

Automated inspection of tinted ophthalmic parts

Contact lens package

An apparatus is provided for removing and transporting articles, such as contact lens sections from a manufacturing line to inspection and packaging stations. The lenses are deposited in a transparent plastic primary package which carries the lenses through the inspection station and becomes part of the primary package when a cover is sealed thereto. The invention includes various assemblies, including lens transfer assemblies, deionized water filling and removal assemblies, a water degassing assembly, a lens inspection assembly, and a lens package sealing assembly. The lenses are removed from pallets at a post hydration station, transported and spatially redistributed, and deposited in the primary packages disposed on a second set of pallets. The packages on the second set of pallets are filled with degassed deionized water. The contact lenses and packages are then transported to an inspection station. After inspection, the lenses and packages are transported to a water removal assembly, and then to another transfer assembly. This transfer assembly separates those lenses which passed inspection from those which did not, and places those that did in a consolidating assembly. The lenses and packages are then filled with saline solution and a foil label is then sealed thereto to form the primary package.

Automated apparatus and method for preparing contact lenses for inspection and packaging

An apparatus for the processing and segmenting of a cover-forming laminate web or sheeting structure which is adapted to interconnect a plurality of containers, such as the base members of blister packages each of which is designed to contain a hydrophilic contact lens in a sterile aqueous solution. More specifically disclosed is an apparatus for the imprinting, perforating, slitting and cutting the laminated web structure such that the severed laminate segments constitute printed covering label for an array of such containers, and whereby the laminated web or sheeting segment may be severed along weakening or perforation lines so as to provide a separable packaging arrangement for individual of the containers which are subsequently adhered thereto.

Apparatus and method for preparing printing labels

A method for removing a liquid from a container having a bowl and a flange, the bowl holding the liquid and containing a hydrophilic ophthalmic lens, wherein there is provided a nozzle with a central face and a shoulder around the periphery of the face. The shoulder has a sealing means which is sized to fit on the flange of the container, where it forms a sealed volume above the container bowl, this volume including the volume of the bowl itself. The central face has through it at least one fluid entrance passage and at least one fluid exit passage arranged so that the flow is distributed substantially symmetric about the center axis of the lens so that when the purging fluid is introduced into the sealed volume, there is no migration of the lens. There is connected to the entrance passage a source of purging fluid that has a pressure and flow sufficient to remove substantially all the liquid through the exit passage.

Method for removing a solution from a container package

An interactive control system for controlling the automatic consolidation of contact lenses in a contact lens product flow, the interactive control system comprises a product line having random variations in product flow. A consolidation buffer receives the products from the product line. A controller initiates consolidation of the random variations in the product flow. The consolidation is preferably performed by at least one stacking cylinder.

Interactive control system for packaging control

An interactive control system for controlling the automatic packaging of contact lenses in a contact lens fabrication facility, the interactive control system consisting of a first robot device for periodically transferring individual arrays of a first predetermined amount or discrete contact lens packages each containing a contact lens therein from a first station to an intermediate conveyor where the individual arrays are conveyed to a second station, and a controller for initiating a time stamp for each individual array transferred from the first station and determining elapsed time data for each individual array and for generating position status data indicating a good array or a bad array of defective lenses for each individual array as it is conveyed to the second station, the controller shifting the elapsed time data and position status data for each individual array as it is conveyed on the intermediate conveyor for transfer to the second station.

Interactive control method for packaging control of time sensitive

An automated apparatus for controlling the automatic packaging of contact lenses in a contact lens fabrication facility includes: a first robotic transfer device for periodically transferring a first predetermined amount of individual packages from an inspection station to an intermediate consolidation buffer and depositing the packages on the consolidation buffer; a control device for tracking and identifying each individual contact lens conveyed from the inspection station to the consolidation buffer and including memory and logic circuits for storing the identity of individual packages containing contact lenses that have been previously determined at the inspection station as being out of specification, and, generating a signal to enable the first robotic device to discard any individual package identified as out of specification; and; a second robotic assembly for periodically transferring a second predetermined amount of individual packages from the consolidation buffer to a second processing station, the control device enabling the first robotic device to provide a sufficient amount of individual packages to the consolidation buffer to enable the second robotic assembly to continuously transfer the second predetermined amount of packages to the second processing station in every period.

Automated apparatus and method for consolidating products and packaging

A packaging arrangement for packaging products such as contact lenses in packages such as blister packs. The packaging arrangement includes an intermittently indexed, linearly driven endless conveyor which includes a plurality of identical support pallets, equally spaced apart along the endless conveyor. Each support pallet is designed to support and align an array of individual package bases. The arrangement is such that each support pallet with an array of individual package bases thereon is sequentially stopped at a plurality of spaced work stations along the endless conveyor.

Packaging arrangement

An automated apparatus for controlling the automatic packaging of contact lenses in a contact lens fabrication facility includes: a first robotic transfer device for periodically transferring a first predetermined amount of individual packages from an inspection station to an intermediate consolidation buffer and depositing the packages on the consolidation buffer; a control device for tracking and identifying each individual contact lens conveyed from the inspection station to the consolidation buffer and including memory and logic circuits for storing the identity of individual packages containing contact lenses that have been previously determined at the inspection station as being out of specification, and, generating a signal to enable the first robotic device to discard any individual package identified as out of specification; and, a second robotic assembly for periodically transferring a second predetermined amount of individual packages from the consolidation buffer to a second processing station, the control device enabling the first robotic device to provide a sufficient amount of individual packages to the consolidation buffer to enable the second robotic assembly to continuously transfer the second predetermined amount of packages to the second processing station in every period.

Automated apparatus and method for consolidating products for packaging

Apparatus and method for degassing deionized water for inspection and

A system for providing diffuse illumination in the inspection of ophthalmic lenses for use in conjunction with a computer-based lens inspection apparatus. Below a package containing an ophthalmic lens in deionized water is an optical diffuser made of flashed opal and below that a light source such as a strobe light. The strobe lamp firing is initiated by the image processing system which is in turn triggered by a signal generated by the arrival of a package containing a lens to be inspected. In the preferrerd embodiment, an arc tube is employed wherein light output diminishes by darkening only in one end of the tube, that end placed outside the reflector.

Illumination system for ophthalmic lens inspection

Growing community of inventors

Jacksonville, FL, United States of America

Russell J Edwards