EYEGLASS LENS PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20100248590A1
• Filed: 03/30/2010
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nidek Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nidek Company Limited
• Inventors: SHIBATA, Ryoji, ASAOKA, Toshiaki, SUGIURA, Yoichi
• Granted Patent: US 8,506,351 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 451/5
• CPC Class Codes: B24B 13/06 grinding of lenses, the tool or work being controlled by information-carrying means, e.g. patterns, punched tapes, magnetic tapes
• CPC Class Codes: B24B 41/062 between centres; Dogs
• CPC Class Codes: B24B 9/14 of optical work, e.g. lenses, prisms control of the position of the tool for bevelling optical work B24B47/225

Abstract

An eyeglass lens processing apparatus includes: a processing chamber; a pair of lens chuck shafts which chucks an eyeglass lens; a lens rotating unit including a motor for rotating the lens chuck shafts; a processing tool which processes a periphery of the lens; an axis-to-axis distance changing unit for changing an axis-to-axis distance between a rotating shaft attached to the processing tool and the lens chuck shafts; a data input unit for inputting processing condition data including a target lens shape; a processing controller which controls the lens rotating unit and the axis-to-axis changing unit to process the lens based on the input processing condition data a camera which is disposed in the processing chamber and takes a video picture of the processing of the lens; and a memory which stores video pictures and the processing condition data.

Claims

1. An eyeglass lens processing apparatus comprising:

a processing chamber;

a pair of lens chuck shafts which is disposed in the processing chamber and chucks an eyeglass lens;

a lens rotating unit including a motor for rotating the pair of lens chuck shafts;

a processing tool which is disposed in the processing chamber and processes a periphery of the lens;

an axis-to-axis distance changing unit including a motor for changing an axis-to-axis distance between a rotating shaft attached to the processing tool and the lens chuck shafts;

a data input unit for inputting processing condition data including a target lens shape;

a processing controller which controls the lens rotating unit and the axis-to-axis changing unit to process the periphery of the lens based on the input processing condition data;

a camera which is disposed in the processing chamber and takes a video picture of the processing of the lens; and

a memory which stores video pictures taken by the camera and processing condition data input by the input unit.

2. The eyeglass lens processing apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

a display;

a video picture specifying unit which has a screen for specifying one of the video pictures stored in the memory; and

a display controller which controls the display to play back the specified video picture by reading out the specified video picture from the memory, and controls the display to display one of the processing condition data of the lens of the specified video picture by reading out one of the processing condition data of the lens of the specified video picture from the memory.

3. The eyeglass lens processing apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

a connection unit which is connectable to an external storage device;

a video picture specifying unit which has a screen for specifying one of the video pictures stored in the memory; and

a data transmission controller which transmits the specified video picture from the connection unit to the external storage device by reading out the specified video picture from the memory, and transmits one of the process condition data of the lens of the specified video picture as additional data from the connection unit to the external storage device by reading out one of the process condition data of the specified video picture from the memory.

4. The eyeglass lens processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the memory stores processing control data,

the data transmission controller transmits one of the processing control data of the lens of the specified video picture as the additional data from the communication unit to the external storage device by reading out one of the processing control data of the lens of the specified video picture from the memory.

5. The eyeglass lens processing apparatus according to claim 3 further comprising a detector which includes a tracing stylus contacting with a refractive surface of the lens and a sensor for detecting a movement of the tracing stylus, and detects an edge position of the lens based on the target lens shape,

wherein the memory stores detecting results of the edge position by the detector, and

wherein the data transmission controller transmits one of the detecting results of the edge position of the lens of the specified video picture as the additional data from the communication unit to the external storage device by reading out one of the detecting results of the edge position of the leas of the specified video picture from the memory.

6. The eyeglass lens processing apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

a switch for inputting a processing start signal for starting the processing of the lens; and

a storage controller which stores the video picture taken by the camera and the processing condition data in the memory,

wherein the storage controller stores the video picture and the processing condition data in the memory, in such a manner that the video picture and the processing condition data can be specified, based on the processing start signal and an end signal indicative of an end of the processing from the processing controller.