Patent ID: 7799249

Claim:
A method for producing a non-surface treated wettable silicone hydrogel contact lens, comprising: injection molding an ethylene-vinyl alcohol polymer-based material to form a plurality of injection molded mold sections comprising a first mold section having a first lens forming region including an optical quality injection molded concave surface, and a second mold section having a second lens forming region including an optical quality injection molded convex surface, wherein each of the mold sections includes the injection molded ethylene-vinyl alcohol polymer-based material and the first mold section and the second mold section together are effective in forming a silicone hydrogel contact lens having wettable surfaces without surface treatment; placing a lens precursor composition that comprises at least one silicon-containing monomer on the optical quality injection molded concave surface of the first mold section; placing the second mold section on the first mold section so that the optical quality injection molded convex surface of the second mold section and the optical quality injection molded concave surface of the first mold section form a contact lens shaped cavity; welding the second mold section and the first mold section together to form a welded contact lens mold assembly; thereafter polymerizing the lens precursor composition in the contact lens shaped cavity to form a wettable silicone hydrogel contact lens; separating the second mold section and the first mold section of the welded contact lens mold assembly comprising placing a wedge, having a knife edge, between the first mold section and second mold section to separate the second mold section from the first mold section; contacting the wettable silicone hydrogel contact lens with a liquid to detach the lens from a surface of the mold section; removing the detached wettable silicone hydrogel contact lens from either the first mold section or the second mold section, the removing step comprising applying negative pressure to a surface of the detached wettable silicone hydrogel contact lens retained on the mold section using a vacuum apparatus to separate the contact lens from the mold section; displacing the wettable silicone hydrogel contact lens from a surface of the vacuum apparatus onto a tray; extracting extractable components from the wettable silicone hydrogel contact lens; and placing the wettable silicone hydrogel contact lens in an aqueous medium to hydrate the wettable silicone hydrogel contact lens, wherein the wettable silicone hydrogel contact lens is free of a surface treatment.