Granted Patent B2

US 8,029,705 · App. 11/398,819 · Granted Oct 4, 2011

Abstract

Claims (19)

1. A method of making an optical element having a corrective focal power comprising:

laminating a first thermoplastic sheet to one side of a functional member, said functional member having a functional property selected from the group consisting of a polarizing medium, decorative medium, tint medium, color medium, photochromic medium and filtering medium;

laminating a second thermoplastic sheet to an opposite side of said functional member to form a laminate insert;

providing a mold having a front concave curved cavity and a back convex curved cavity, a radius of curvature of each of said front and back curved cavities each being set so as to produce said corrective focal power in said optical element;

placing said laminate insert securely into said front concave curved cavity so as to form a seal between said laminate insert and said front concave curved cavity;

injecting a molten thermoplastic into said mold against said laminate insert so that said molten thermoplastic creates a layer that is greater in thickness than a thickness of said laminate insert;

allowing said molten thermoplastic to cool; and,

ejecting said resulting optical element having a corrective focal power from said mold.

2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein injecting a molten thermoplastic includes fusing the molten thermoplastic to said laminate insert.

3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein injecting a molten thermoplastic includes injecting a molten polycarbonate against a polycarbonate sheet of said laminate insert.

4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said front curved cavity and said back curved cavity are set so as to produce a semi-finished optical element.

5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said front curved cavity and said back curved cavity are set so as to produce a finished optical element.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the functional member comprises one of a light polarizing component, a photochromic compound and a combined light polarizing component and photochromic compound.

7. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

grinding a back surface of said optical element according to a desired prescription power for said optical element.

8. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said corrective focal power is a pre-selected base power curve.

9. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said corrective focal power is a prescription curve.

10. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said functional property is a photochromic property.

11. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said functional property is a polarizing property.

Assignments (15)