Spectacle lens manufacturing method and spectacle lens manufacturing system

• US 20060189255A1
• Filed: 03/09/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hoya Corporation
• Original Assignee: Hoya Corporation
• Inventors: Akiyama, Hisanori
• Granted Patent: US 8,241,534 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 451/5
• CPC Class Codes: B24B 9/148 electrically, e.g. numerically, controlled
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32024 Remote ordering, electronic selection article and fitting to form of client
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/35097 Generation of cutter path, offset curve
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45157 Grind optical lens
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 80/40 Minimising material used in manufacturing processes

Abstract

Aims to reduce the types of blanks such as a semi-finished lens blank, materials, and processing time.

A spectacle lens design device 201 disposed at a factory 200 on a manufacturing side and a lens processing device connected thereto block an applicable semi-finished lens blank or lens blank so that a reference surface thereof tilts at a predetermined angle using a numerical-control curve generator based on order information sent from an order terminal 101 disposed at an spectacle store 100 on a order-placement side, and form both surfaces of a plastic material so that a geometric center of an edge shape positions at a center of a circle of a circular lens to thereby satisfy an optical specification of the spectacle lens-related to the order, and next, the circular lens is processed to have the edge shape of the spectacle lens-related to the order to thereby obtain the spectacle lens-related to the order.

Claims

1. A spectacle lens manufacturing method manufacturing a spectacle lens based on order information including spectacle frame information, a prescription value, and layout information, comprising the steps of:

forming a lens member to obtain the lens member by forming a curved surface shape satisfying an optical specification of the spectacle lens related to an order on a plastic material; and

edging to process the lens member to be shaped into an edge shape of the spectacle lens related to the order,

wherein said lens member forming step is to form a curved surface shape on the plastic material so that a geometric center of the edge shape positions at a processing center or geometric center of the plastic material.

2. The spectacle lens manufacturing method according to claim 1,

wherein said lens member forming step uses a lens blank of which both the surface have not yet processed to the curved surface shape satisfying the optical specification of the spectacle lens related to the order but processed to a predetermined surface shape as the plastic material of a processing target, and is able to process the spectacle lens related to the order appropriately out of a plurality of lens blanks manufactured and prepared in advance, and

wherein the lens blank having an outside diameter at least larger than a maximum distance between a frame center and a frame of the spectacle frame related to the order and having the smallest outside diameter as well is selected and processed so that the spectacle lens related to the order is manufactured.

3. The spectacle lens manufacturing method according to claim 1 or 2,

wherein said lens member forming step uses a numerical-control curve generator generating the curved surface shape of a processing target by controlling distances from a cutting blade to the plastic material and a rotation axis, respectively, in accordance with the curved surface shape of a formation target while rotating the plastic material around the rotation axis passing through a specific point of the curved surface of the processing target, and

wherein the plastic material is arranged so that the center thereof being a geometric center of an edge shape of the spectacle lens comes above the rotation axis, a calculation is made to obtain a tilt angle in a case where a reference surface of the plastic material is tilted at a predetermined angle with respect to a case where the processing is performed on assumption that an optical center or a lens vertex positions above the rotation axis, and a processing is performed by tilting the reference surface of the plastic material beforehand to offset the tilted angle.

4. A spectacle lens manufacturing system, comprising:

an order placement-side computer processing and transmitting information required to order a spectacle lens including frame shape information;

a manufacturing-side computer acquiring information required to manufacture the spectacle lens-related to the order by receiving the information transmitted by the order placement-side computer; and

a spectacle lens manufacturing device manufacturing the spectacle lens-related to the order that is processed to have a shape settable in a frame by performing processes including formations of a curved surface and edge shape on a plastic material based on the information acquired by the manufacturing-side computer;

wherein said spectacle lens manufacturing device uses, as the plastic material of a processing target, a lens blank being a partly finished product of which both surfaces are not yet processed to have a curved surface satisfying an ultimate optical specification but have a predetermined surface shape,

wherein a processing center of the. lens. blank matches with a frame center of the edge shape to be processed, wherein said spectacle lens manufacturing device selects, out of plural lens blank of different outside diameters and/or lens thicknesses prepared in advance, the lens blank having the outside diameter and/or lens thickness size(s) allowing an appropriate processing for the spectacle lens-related to the order,

wherein the selection of the outside diameter of the lens blank is conducted by specifying based on a distance from a frame center to a frame and the spectacle lens-related to the order is manufactured by processing the selected lens blank, and

wherein the curved surface formation is performed to both the surfaces of the lens blank selected by the selection.