Patent ID: 8016582

Claim:
An apparatus for manufacturing optical elements, the apparatus comprising: a base; a lower mold core mounted on the base, the lower mold core having a lower molding surface with at least one first lower alignment mark defined thereat; an upper mold core having an upper molding surface generally opposite to the lower molding surface, at least one first upper alignment mark being defined at the upper molding surface; a transparent aligning plate comprising a plurality of opaque alignment marks, the opaque alignment marks including at least one first opaque alignment mark corresponding to the at least one first lower alignment mark and at least one second opaque alignment mark corresponding to the at least one first upper alignment mark; and an image pick-up device movably mounted to the base, the image pick-up device configured for being positioned between the upper mold core and the aligning plate and capturing at least one image of the at least one first opaque alignment mark and the at least one first lower alignment mark to analyze alignment accuracy between the lower mold core and the aligning plate, and configured for being positioned between the lower mold core and the aligning plate and capturing at least one image of the at least one second opaque alignment mark and the at least one first upper alignment mark to analyze alignment accuracy between the upper mold core and the aligning plate.