Patent ID: 6276994
Filing Date: 2001-08-21
Classification: B23Q,B24B,B29D

Abstract:
An apparatus for the production of a plastic lens substrate for eyeglasses by processing a plastic block material, comprising:a retainer constructed to retain a plastic block material;a holder constructed to hold a processing tool;a storage System which stores processing tools to be used in grinding, smoothing and polishing operations, each of the processing tools having a processing end portion dimensioned to be smaller than a dimension of the block material;a manipulating system that manipulates at least one of the processing tool and the block material retainer for processing of the block material;a driving system that actuates at least one of the tool holder and the block material retainer such that the processing tool and the block material are subjected to relative movement; anda control unit operative to numerically control at least one of the driving system and the manipulating system such that a surface of the block material is processed into a surface selected from the group consisting of an aspherical surface, a progressive surface, and a combination of aspherical and toric surfaces,wherein said driving system is operative to cause said tool holder to access said storage system to enable exchange of the tools to be used in the grinding, smoothing, and polishing operations.