Printing colored contact lenses
First Claim
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1. A method of making a colored contact lens, the method comprising the steps of:
- transporting a contact lens into an ink jet printer having a plurality of nozzels, wherein each nozzel is sized to form drops having a volume of less than 100 picoliters of colorant; and
printing pixels of less than 150 microns in diameter on a surface of the contact lens by, under control of a computer, dispensing droplets of a first colorant from one or more nozzles, onto the surface of the contact lens to form a first pattern, wherein the ink jet printer spaces the pixels less than 80 microns from each other.
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Abstract
A method of making a colored contact lens comprises printing at least one layer of a colorant onto a contact lens using a printing process selected from the group consisting of ink jet printing, electrophotographic printing, thermal transfer printing, and photographic development printing. Printing can be done directly on the contact lens, on a film in a mold where the contact lens is formed, or on a cliché pad. Multiple layers of colorants can be printed onto a contact lens.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1. A method of making a colored contact lens, the method comprising the steps of:
transporting a contact lens into an ink jet printer having a plurality of nozzels, wherein each nozzel is sized to form drops having a volume of less than 100 picoliters of colorant; and
printing pixels of less than 150 microns in diameter on a surface of the contact lens by, under control of a computer, dispensing droplets of a first colorant from one or more nozzles, onto the surface of the contact lens to form a first pattern, wherein the ink jet printer spaces the pixels less than 80 microns from each other.- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method of making a colored contact lens, the method comprising the steps of:
- transporting a contact lens into an ink jet printer having a plurality of nozzels, wherein each nozzel is sized to form drops having a volume of less than 100 picoliters of colorant, and wherein the ink jet printer is capable of printing, on the surface of the contact lens, pixels which are less than 150 microns in diameter;
printing a first pattern on a surface of the contact lens by, under control of a computer, dispensing droplets of a first colorant from one or more nozzles, onto the surface of the contact lens; and
coating the lens with a binding solution, wherein the binding solution comprises at least one hydrophilic monomer and at least one hydrophobic monomer. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
- transporting a contact lens into an ink jet printer having a plurality of nozzels, wherein each nozzel is sized to form drops having a volume of less than 100 picoliters of colorant, and wherein the ink jet printer is capable of printing, on the surface of the contact lens, pixels which are less than 150 microns in diameter;
Specification