Contact Lens Package Ceramic Coating Barrier
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Solution Overview
Problem
Contact lens packages require a sufficient barrier effect to prevent diffusion of the contact lens fluid, which is challenging to achieve with existing materials and methods, leading to high material costs and poor recyclability.
Innovation Solution
A method and packaging machine for producing contact lens packages with a silicon oxide or aluminium oxide coating applied to the accommodation element in the region of the cup, significantly reducing fluid diffusion and allowing for a thinner package design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a multi-ply plastic film composite is used to achieve barrier effect, then diffusion of contact lens fluid is prevented, but production cost increases and recyclability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies composite materials by combining a plastic film base layer with a ceramic coating layer (silicon oxide or aluminium oxide). This composite structure provides superior barrier properties compared to multi-ply plastic composites, while being more cost-effective and recyclable. The ceramic coating is applied to the plastic film through dip-coating or spray-coating, creating a multi-layer composite that leverages the advantages of both material systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical and chemical parameters of the accommodation element surface by applying a ceramic coating. This coating transformation fundamentally alters the barrier properties, reducing fluid diffusion from a function requiring thick multi-ply structures to one achieved through a thin coated layer, thereby reducing material costs and improving recyclability.
2Reliability
If injection moulding is used to produce accommodation element, then barrier effect is achieved, but material requirements and production costs increase due to great wall thickness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs thin films by using a thin plastic film base layer (0.05-0.6 mm) that is coated with a thin ceramic layer. This thin film approach replaces the need for thick injection-moulded plastic structures, achieving the same barrier effect through the ceramic coating's low permeability properties rather than through material thickness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent substitutes the mechanical approach of using thick plastic walls (injection moulding) with a chemical/physical approach using ceramic coating. Instead of relying on the mechanical strength and thickness of the plastic material to provide the barrier, the system uses the low permeability property of the ceramic coating applied to the plastic surface, fundamentally changing how the barrier function is achieved.
3Quantity of substance
If wall thickness is reduced to lower material costs, then material requirements decrease, but barrier effect deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves this contradiction through composite materials by combining a thin plastic film with a thin ceramic coating layer. The plastic film provides structural integrity and flexibility, while the ceramic coating provides the barrier function. This composite structure achieves excellent barrier properties (reducing fluid diffusion) with minimal material usage, as the ceramic layer's low permeability compensates for the thinness of the overall structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the barrier mechanism from thickness-dependent (thick plastic walls) to property-dependent (ceramic coating's low permeability). By applying the ceramic coating, the system achieves superior barrier properties not through material quantity but through material quality transformation, allowing thin walls to provide adequate protection.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The silicon oxide or aluminium oxide coating provides excellent barrier properties, reducing the wall thickness of the contact lens package to about a third of conventional packages, thereby lowering material requirements and costs, and improving recyclability.
Implementation Method 1
The silicon oxide-or aluminium oxide-containing coating has excellent barrier properties that greatly reduce or even eliminate diffusion of the contact lens fluid or constituents thereof
Data Source
AI summary
The contact lens package comprises an accommodation element having a cup which contains a contact lens fluid and a contact lens, and a cover film which closes the cup. The accommodation element has, at least in a region of the cup, a coating containing silicon oxide or aluminium oxide. The associated method of production comprises the coating of the accommodation element, at least in the region of the cup, with the coating and the associated packaging machine comprises a coating station for corresponding coating of the accommodation element.