Manufacture of contact lenses
There are different manufacturing systems according to contact lens materials.
​
For soft contact lenses:
​
Lathing: consists of placing a disc of the contact lens material, in a non-hydrated state, on a axis that is rotated. Then, cutting tools, controlled by computer, cut the anterior and posterior surface. Then, the finished lenses are removed to pass to a process of hydration and subsequent quality control.
​
Modeling by injection: the material of soft contact lenses is heated to a melted state and then injected into a mold. Then it is cooled quickly, then removed from the molds, hydrated and finally, the quality control is performed.
​
The manufacture by injection molding has allowed the market to use the lenses of use and throw, because the costs of manufacturing are lower.
​
For semi-rigid contact lenses:
​
Lathing: the manufacture must be very accurate because these lenses are rigid and any wrong parameter can make a failed adaptation.
​