Method of producing coated lenses

• US 8,613,982 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2008
• Issued: 12/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tokuyama Corporation
• Original Assignee: Tokuyama Corporation
• Inventors: Takahashi, Naoto, Mori, Katsuhiro, Fukada, Noriyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): GREGORIO, GUINEVER S
• Application Number:
  US12/516,740
• Publication Number:
  US 20100086700A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,160 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 427/512
• CPC Class Codes: B05D 1/005 Spin coating
• CPC Class Codes: B05D 3/067 Curing or cross-linking the coating
• CPC Class Codes: B05D 5/061 Special surface effect

Abstract

A method of coating without permitting the coating solution to flow onto the side surfaces or the back surfaces of the lenses in the operation for applying the coating solution onto the lenses. A lens 15 is spin-coated with the coating solution having a particular viscosity. A side edge portion 121 of a spatula 119 is brought into contact with an upper edge portion of a side surface 15a of the lens 15 before the coating solution fed onto the surface of the lens arrives at the peripheral edge portion of the lens. The side edge portion 121 of the spatula 119 is so arranged that the upper end side of the spatula is tilted toward the center side of the lens 15 at an angle of 5 to 35 degrees with the vertical line as a reference. The coating solution applied onto the lens 15 that is rotating adheres onto the spatula 119 but does not adhere onto the side surface of the lens 15.

Claims

1. A method of producing coated lenses comprising the steps of:

(A) holding a lens with its surface facing upward by a spinning device that supports and rotates the lens;

(B) feeding a photocurable coating solution onto an upper surface of the lens held by said spinning device;

(C) spreading the photocurable coating solution fed onto the upper surface of the lens by using a flexible film while rotating the lens; and

(D) forming a coating by curing said photocurable coating solution by irradiating the “

lens coated with the photocurable coating solution that is spread thereon through said step (C)”

with light;

wherein said photocurable coating solution has a viscosity at 25°

C. of 80 to 1000 centipoises (cP),

and further comprising a step (E) of bringing an edge portion of a spatula into contact with an upper edge portion of the lens held by said spinning device, wherein the edge portion of the spatula is tilted at an angle of 5 to 35°

relative to a vertical line toward the center of the lens, an upper portion of said spatula being tilted toward the center side of the lens, said step (E) being executed after the end of said step (A) but before the photocurable coating solution arrives at a circumferential edge portion of the lens in said step (C) to thereby guide an excess of the photocurable coating solution from the upper edge portion of the lens to a side of the spatula and consequently prevent the coating solution from dripping on a side surface of the lens at the time when the photocurable coating solution is being spread,

wherein the lens set in said step (A) is a lens having a primer layer formed on the surface thereof by a spin-coating method.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein a flat surface of said spatula is arranged on a plane that passes through a center axis of the lens and a contact portion where a side edge portion of said spatula comes in contact with the upper edge portion of the lens.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1 or 2, wherein said step (E) is executed after said step (A) but before starting said step (C).

4. The method as set forth in claim 1 or 2, wherein said step (E) is executed after said step (A) but at a moment when the photocurable coating solution fed onto the upper surface of the lens is spread over 50 to 98% of a surface area of the lens in said step (C).

5. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein said photocurable coating solution is a photochromic solution.