Manufacturing of Soft Contact Lenses Using Reusable and Reliable Cyclic Olefin Copolymer Moulds.

We present experimental evidence of reusable, reliable cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) moulds in soft contact lens manufacturing. The moulds showed high performance surface roughness characteristics despite >20 kW exposure to 365 nm ultraviolet (UV) light from repeated use. Ultra-precision manufacturing techniques were used to fabricate transparent COC mould inserts and to produce soft contact lenses from liquid monomer compositions. Both polymer and silicone hydrogels were fabricated with more than 60 individual uses of the moulds. White light interferometry measured the surface roughness (Sa) of the COC moulds to be almost unchanged before and after repeated use (Sa 16.3 nm before vs. 16.6 nm after). The surface roughness of the prototyped lenses and that of commercially available soft contact lenses were then compared by white light interferometry. The surface roughness of the lenses was also nearly unchanged, despite undergoing more than 60 uses of the COC moulds (lens Sa 24.4 nm before vs. after Sa 26.5 nm). By comparison the roughness of the commercial lenses ranged from 9.3-28.5 nm, including conventional and silicone lenses, indicating that the reusable COC moulds produced competitive surface properties. In summary, COC moulds have potential as reusable and reliable mould inserts in the manufacturing of soft contact lenses, yet maintain high quality optical surfaces even after sustained exposure to UV light.