Lens holder

This is a holder for glass or plastic lenses of varying sizes and shapes used to facilitate their handling. A lens is removably held within a flexible loop with an inner groove which receives the edge of the lens. The ends of the loop are fastened to each other and encased in a tubular handle which serves as a means for handling the lens readily without damaging it. A sliding sleeve enables one to lock a lens into the holder or remove it easily when necessary.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Optometrists, oculists, ophthamologists, and others who fit glasses for 
their patients often find it necessary to let them handle individual 
lenses. If a patient wishes to look through a lens to examine its color, 
for example, he must hold it up to his eye. When he does this, there is 
always the danger that he will drop, scratch, or dirty the lens. 
Lenses are often provided with individual holders to avoid these dangers. 
Since lenses now come in so many shapes and sizes, a wide variety of 
holders must be made to accommodate the variations. In addition, most of 
the holders used today must be heated before the lenses can be snapped 
into place. The same heating step is needed for removal. As a result, they 
are frequently hard to secure to and remove from a lens. 
The present invention, accordingly, seeks to overcome these difficulties by 
providing an adjustable holder which can removably hold a variety of 
lenses. The lens can be readily locked into the frame and removed from it. 
The holder has a handle for the patient to grasp so that he does not have 
to handle a lens by its edges. 
Another feature of the present invention is that it can receive both 
circularly and noncircularly shaped lenses. This holder can accommodate 
both plastic and glass lenses. The lenses may also vary substantially in 
thickness at their edges and still fit the lens holder. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An adjustable lens holder is provided with a flexible loop having an inner 
groove to receive the periphery of a lens. The free ends of the loop are 
bent together to form a shank, the end of which is held within a tubular 
handle. A tightening sleeve, frictionally received upon the shank between 
the loop and handle, serves to removably secure the lens within the inner 
groove.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring to the drawing and to FIGS. 2, 3 and 5 in particular, 9 indicates 
an adjustable lens holder made in accordance with the present invention. 
Holder 9 consists of a top portion 14, and a lower portion 17 having a 
handle 16 and a shank 18. A tightening sleeve 15 is slideably mounted on 
said shank. As FIG. 1 shows, a plurality of these holders may be readily 
held in a tray. 
A lens 10 is removably held by its edges within a flexible loop-shaped 
frame 12 having an elongated groove 13 wide enough to receive said edges. 
Frame 12 can be formed out of any flexible plastic such as cellulose 
acetate butyrate, nylon, or the like. For purely aesthetic reasons, frame 
12 can be coated with a chromium or other metalic coating 11. Since frame 
12 is flexible, it can receive both circular and non-circular lenses of 
both glass and plastic. In addition, the lenses may be of differing 
thicknesses. The difference in shapes and sizes of the lenses is 
compensated for by slidably tightening sleeve 15 upon the shank 18 to pull 
the loop tightly about the lens once it has been inserted within the 
groove. 
The lower portion of the holder 17 consists of the two ends of frame 12 
held against each other by a hollow, encircling cylindrical handle 16. 
Said handle is readily fashioned out of resilient plastic. Handle 16 
frictionally secures the two ends of the frame together. (See FIG. 4). In 
addition, handle 16 provides a means with which a technician or patient 
can hold a lens 10 while looking through it. 
Shank 18 is formed of the frame material between the loop and the handle 
16. A tightening sleeve 15, which may be made of the same plastic as the 
handle, is slidably mounted upon the shank 18. Sliding sleeve 15 toward 
the top of the holder closes the frame loop so that its inner groove 13 
encloses the edges of lens 10. The tightening sleeve 15 can be pushed far 
enough toward the top of the holder 9 to frictionally lock itself beneath 
the loop shaped frame 12, thereby securing the lens within the frame 12. 
The sleeve 15 will lock in different positions, depending upon the shape 
and circumference of the lens inserted in the holder 9. 
To remove lens 10, one need only pull tightening sleeve 15 downward toward 
handle 16. Frame 12 will then expand and release lens 10 so that it can be 
removed from the holder.