METHOD OF MAKING SILICONE HYDROGEL CONTACT LENSES Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC G02C7/04 G02B1/04 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: method according to the invention includes the following steps: providing a mould for making a soft contact lens, the mould having a first mould half which forms a first moulding surface, which forms the front surface of the contact lens, and a second mould half which forms a second moulding surface, which forms the rear surface of the contact lens, said first and second mould halves configured to be connected to each other such that a cavity forms between said first and second moulding surfaces; feeding a mixture of monomers of lens forming materials into the cavity, where said mixture of monomers includes at least one hydrophilic amide-type vinyl monomer, at least one siloxane-containing (meth)acryalide monomer, at least one polysiloxane vinyl monomer or macromer and about 0.05 to about 1.5 wt % photoinitiator, where the lens forming material is characterised by the capacity to be cured by UV radiation having intensity of about 4.1 mW/cm², in about 100 s; and irradiating the lens forming material in the mould for 120 s or less with spatially confined actinic radiation in order to cross-link the lens forming material to form a silicone hydrogel contact lens, where the contact lens made has a front surface, formed by the first moulding surface, opposite the rear surface formed by the second moulding surface, and a lens edge formed in accordance with spatial confinement of the actinic radiation.

EFFECT: making silicon hydrogel contact lenses whose edges are defined not by touching moulding surfaces, but by spatial confinement of radiation, which enables to reuse the mould to make high-quality contact lenses with good reproducibility.

18 cl