Patent ID: 8306853

Claim:
A method for ensuring that plastic ophthalmic lenses produced by a lens manufacturer are compliant with lens impact resistance regulations, the method comprising the steps of: (a) the lens manufacturer providing an auditing entity with information about the type of lenses it manufactures and whether the lenses have been treated with a coating selected from the group consisting of a hard coating and an anti-reflective coating; (b) the auditing entity using the information about the type of lenses and whether the lenses have been treated with a coating to determine the lens manufacturer's weakest lens configuration; (c) the lens manufacturer providing the auditing entity with a plurality of reference lenses having the weakest lens configuration; (d) the auditing entity testing the plurality of reference lenses by impact resistance testing; (e) the auditing entity providing the lens manufacturer with a plurality of formal operating procedure guidelines governing process control in a process of manufacturing and testing of the lenses; (f) the auditing entity conducting an initial on-site audit of the lens manufacturer to determine whether the lens manufacturer has implemented the formal operating procedure guidelines; (g) the auditing entity conducting periodic follow-up on-site audits of the lens manufacturer to determine whether the lens manufacturer has continued to implement the formal operating procedure guidelines; and (h) the lens manufacturer subjecting a sample set of lenses from a batch of lenses having the weakest lens configuration to an impact resistance test on a daily basis, wherein the sample set comprises lenses having cosmetic defects.