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CN-121986023-A - Plastic waste collection apparatus, associated manufacturing station, ophthalmic article, and associated method

CN121986023ACN 121986023 ACN121986023 ACN 121986023ACN-121986023-A

Abstract

The invention relates to a plastic waste collection device (15) configured to cooperate with a lens manufacturing station (1), the lens manufacturing station (1) being configured to shape a lens (3) by mechanical material removal, such as machining, grinding and/or edging, and comprising an interface (9) for receiving data information related to lens manufacturing operations related to lenses to be formed by the lens (3) manufacturing station (1), the data information comprising at least a material type parameter of a lens to be formed for each lens (3) manufacturing operation, the plastic waste collection device (15) comprising-at least a first collection area (17A) for collecting plastic waste according to the first material type parameter, -at least a second collection area (17B) for collecting plastic waste according to the second material type parameter, -a scheduling unit (31) configured to receive the material type parameter for each lens manufacturing operation and to schedule the generated waste towards the first collection area or the second collection area (17A, 17B) depending on the received material type parameter.

Inventors

  • C.Huo
  • F. YOSHINAGA
  • S. pine.

Assignees

  • 依视路国际公司

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20241121
Priority Date
20231128

Claims (16)

  1. 1. A plastic waste collection device (15) configured to cooperate with a lens manufacturing station (1), the lens manufacturing station (1) being configured to shape a lens (3) by mechanical material removal, such as machining, grinding and/or edging, and comprising an interface (9) for receiving data information related to lens manufacturing operations related to lenses to be shaped by the lens (3) manufacturing station (1), the data information comprising for each lens (3) manufacturing operation at least material type parameters of the lens to be shaped, the plastic waste collection device (15) comprising At least a first collection area (17A) for collecting plastic waste according to a first material type parameter, At least a second collection area (17B) for collecting plastic waste according to a second material type parameter, -A scheduling unit (31) configured to receive the material type parameter of each lens manufacturing job and schedule the generated waste material towards the first or second collection area (17 a,17 b) according to the received material type parameter.
  2. 2. The plastic waste collection apparatus of claim 1, further comprising A main waste drain section (27) having one end configured to be connected to a waste output of a job execution space (5) of the lens manufacturing station (1) and the other end configured to be connected to the scheduling unit, -At least a first evacuation section (17A) having a first end connected to the scheduling unit (31) and a second end output towards the first waste collection area (17A), -At least a second emptying section (18B) having a first end connected to the scheduling unit (31) and a second end output towards the second waste collection area (18B).
  3. 3. Plastic waste collection device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the scheduling unit (31) comprises at least one flap (21,21B) controlled to be at least in a first position in which the generated waste is directed towards the first collection area (17A) and prevented from reaching the second collection area (17B) and in a second position in which the generated waste is directed towards the second collection area (17B) and prevented from reaching the first collection area (17A).
  4. 4. A plastic waste collection device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the scheduling unit (31) comprises one dedicated associated flap (21 a,21 b) for each waste collection area (17 a,17 b), said flaps being controlled to be in an open position authorizing the produced waste to reach the associated collection area (17 a,17 b) and a closed position preventing the produced waste from reaching the associated collection area (17 a,17 b).
  5. 5. The plastic waste collection device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising at least one suction unit (25 a,25 b) connected to at least one collection area (17 a,17 b) to suck the generated waste towards the collection area (17 a,17 b).
  6. 6. The plastic waste collection device of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein at least one evacuation section (18 a,18b, 27) further comprises at least one flushing sprayer (35) for cleaning the evacuation section (18 a,18b, 27).
  7. 7. The plastic waste collection device of claim 6, wherein at least one waste collection area (17 a,17 b) comprises a container (37) with a liquid-solid separator (39).
  8. 8. A lens manufacturing station (1) configured to shape a lens by material removal, such as machining, grinding, polishing and/or edging, and comprising an interface for exchanging data with a job database containing data information relating to lenses (3) to be manufactured, said data information comprising at least for each lens manufacturing job material type parameters of the lenses to be shaped, the lens manufacturing station further comprising a plastic waste collection device (15) according to any one of claims 1 to 7.
  9. 9. The lens manufacturing station according to claim 8, comprising a work execution space equipped with a tool (7 a,7 b) configured to shape the lens (3) by material removal, such as machining, grinding, polishing and/or edging, the lens manufacturing station further comprising -At least a first evacuation section (18A) having a first end connected to the scheduling unit (31) and a second end output towards the first collection area (17A), -At least a second emptying section (18B) having a first end connected to the scheduling unit (31) and a second end outputting towards the second collecting area (17B), the scheduling unit (31) being between the job execution space (5) and the respective first and second emptying sections (18 a, 18B).
  10. 10. The lens manufacturing station according to claim 9, wherein the first and second evacuation sections (18 a,18 b) are located on opposite sides of the job execution space (5).
  11. 11. The lens manufacturing station according to any one of claims 8 to 10, wherein the first scrap collecting area (17A) is dedicated to receiving thermoplastic scrap and comprises a scrap cleaning unit and/or a drying unit (172; 174).
  12. 12. The lens manufacturing station according to claim 11, wherein the lens manufacturing station further comprises a plastic pellet forming unit (176) downstream of the waste cleaning and/or drying unit (172; 174).
  13. 13. The lens manufacturing station according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the scheduling unit (31) is configured to schedule a target component to at least one collection area (17A), the target component being composed of plastic waste material having a first material type parameter and a second material type parameter.
  14. 14. A method for collecting plastic waste generated by a lens manufacturing station (1) configured to shape a lens (3) by material removal, such as machining, grinding, polishing and/or edging, and comprising an interface for exchanging data with a job database containing data information related to the lens to be manufactured, said data information comprising at least for each lens manufacturing job the material type parameters of the lens to be shaped, wherein the method comprises the steps of: receiving a material type parameter of the lens to be shaped, -Scheduling the generated waste towards a collection area (17 a,17 b) according to the received material type parameter to collect waste according to the first material type parameter.
  15. 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of controlling at least one flap (21 a,21 b) for scheduling the generated waste material.
  16. 16. The method of claim 14 or 15, further comprising a pumping step for scheduling the generated waste.

Description

Plastic waste collection apparatus, associated manufacturing station, ophthalmic article, and associated method Technical Field The present invention relates generally to a waste collection device, a related manufacturing station, and a related method, particularly in the field of the manufacture of ophthalmic articles. Background The term "ophthalmic product" is understood in particular to mean a lens, corrective lens or other lens which can be used as an ophthalmic lens, for example for spectacles (in particular sunglasses, goggles, sunshades, etc.). In most cases, these ophthalmic articles comprise a substrate made of a plastic material. The plastic material used to manufacture the ophthalmic lens depends on the lens manufacturer but may also depend on the specific characteristics of the ophthalmic article that must be manufactured. Today, various types of plastic materials are used in lens manufacturing. These types of plastic materials include, for example, polymers such as thermoplastic materials (e.g., polycarbonates and thermoplastic polyurethanes), particularly made of Polyamide (PA) (e.g., nylon) or polycarbonate, polyester, or TRIVEX (registered trademark), or thermoset (crosslinked) materials such as diethylene glycol bis (allyl carbonate) polymers and copolymers (particularly CR-39 ® from PPG Industries), thermoset polyurethanes, polythiourethanes (preferably polythiourethane resins having a refractive index of 1.60 or 1.67), polyepoxides, polyepisulfides (e.g., polyepisulfides having a refractive index of 1.74), substrates based on poly (meth) acrylates (e.g., PMMA) and copolymers such as substrates comprising (meth) acrylic polymers and copolymers derived from bisphenol a, polythio (meth) acrylates, and copolymers thereof and blends thereof. Preferred materials for the lens substrate are Polycarbonate (PC) and diethylene glycol bis (allyl carbonate) polymers, particularly substrates made of polycarbonate. Alternatively, a PET or TAC film or any other suitable material may be present on the substrate, on any of its surfaces, for example added by lamination. The manufacturing process, in particular the machining, grinding and/or deburring operations, necessarily generates a large amount of plastic waste in the form of surface machining chips. Today, all surface machining chips are collected and mixed together. This makes it difficult to post-treat, recycle and impart value to such post-collection commingled plastic waste. In fact, since thermoplastics and thermosets behave differently in their chemical nature, their collection together eventually forms a "plastic mixture" that is difficult to recycle and of little value. With regard to chip sorting, several solutions are available on the market. The separation is usually carried out after mixing all types of chips and thus requires complex separation methods (e.g. optical separation methods, thermal separation methods, flotation or density separation methods), which do not allow acceptable valuable components and efficiencies to be achieved. It is therefore an object of the present invention to propose an improved device for plastic waste collection which allows recycling of the plastic waste produced during lens manufacturing and better imparts value. To this extent, the present invention proposes a plastic waste collection device configured to cooperate with a lens manufacturing station configured to shape a lens by mechanical material removal (such as machining, grinding and/or edging), and comprising an interface for receiving data information related to lens manufacturing operations involving lenses to be shaped by said lens manufacturing station, said data information comprising for each lens manufacturing operation at least a material type parameter of the lens to be shaped, the plastic waste collection device comprising At least a first collection area for collecting plastic waste according to a first material type parameter, At least a second collection area for collecting plastic waste according to a second material type parameter, -A scheduling unit configured to receive the material type parameter for each lens manufacturing job and schedule the generated waste material towards the first or second collection area according to the received material type parameter. The plastic waste collection device may present one or several additional aspects, alone or in combination: The plastic waste collection device may further comprise A main waste drain section having one end configured to be connected to a waste output of a job execution space of the lens manufacturing station and the other end configured to be connected to a scheduling unit, At least a first evacuation section having a first end connected to the scheduling unit and a second end output towards the first waste collection area, -At least a second evacuation section having a first end connected to the scheduling unit and a second end output towards the second waste collection a