Soft contact lenses and process for preparation thereof

Claim 2

Soft contact lenses consisting essentially of copolymer derived from a monomer mixture of at least one polymerizable monomer of the general formula, ##EQU3##wherein X is a member selected from a group consisting of H and CH 3 and n is either of 2 or 3 and at least one polymerizable monomer of the general formula ##EQU4##wherein X is a member selected from a group consisting of H and CH 3 and m is an integer of 4 to 13, whereby the mixing ratio of the monomer or monomers of the first group and the monomer or monomers of the second group is 1:6 to 4:1 by weight.

Claim 3

Soft contact lenses consisting essentially of copolymer derived from a monomer mixture of at least one polymerizable monomer of the general formula, ##STR3##wherein X is a member selected from a group consisting of H and CH 3 and n is either of 2 or 3 and at least one polymerizable monomer of the general formula ##STR4##wherein X is a member selected from a group consisting of H and CH 3 and m is an integer of 4 to 13, whereby the mixing ratio of the monomer or monomers of the first group and the monomer or monomers of the second group is 1:6 to 4:1 by weight, wherein said copolymer further contains at least one further polymerizable monomer selected from the group consisting of acrylate and methacrylate of an alkyl containing up to 18 carbon atoms; acrylate and methacrylate of a cycloalkyl containing up to 8 carbon atoms; glycidyl acrylate and methacrylate; acrylate and methacrylate of aralkyl and aryl containing up to 8 carbon atoms; lower-alkoxy-lower alkyl acrylate and methacrylate; acrylic acid; methacrylic acid; alkali metal acrylate; lower-acyl acrylate and methacrylate, alkaline earth metal acrylate and methacrylate; styrene, alphamethylstyrene, vinyltoluene, divinylbenzene, vinyl chloride, vinyl esters of carboxylic acids containing up to 18 carbon atoms; alkanediol dimethacrylates and diacrylate, said alkane diol containing up to 10 carbon atoms; polyethylene glycol diacrylate and dimethacrylate; trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate, whereby the content of the said third monomer or monomers does not exceed 40% by weight of the amount of the total monomer mixture.

Claim 4

Soft contact lenses consisting essentially of copolymer derived from a monomer mixture of at least one polymerizable monomer of the general formula, ##STR3##wherein X is a member selected from a group consisting of H and CH 3 and n is either of 2 or 3 and at least one polymerizable monomer of the general formula ##STR4##wherein X is a member selected from a group consisting of H and CH 3 and m is an integer of 4 to 13, whereby the mixing ratio of the monomer or monomers of the first group and the monomer or monomers of the second group is 1:6 to 4:1 by weight, wherein said copolymer further contains at least one further polymerizable monomer selected from the group consisting of acrylate and methacrylate of an alkyl containing up to 18 carbon atoms; acrylate and methacrylate of a cycloalkyl containing up to 8 carbon atoms; glycidyl acrylate and methacrylate; acrylate and methacrylate of aralkyl and aryl containing up to 8 carbon atoms; lower-alkoxy-lower alkyl acrylate and methacrylate; acrylic acid; methacrylic acid; alkali metal acrylate; lower-acyl acrylate and methacrylate, alkaline earth metal acrylate and methacrylate; styrene, alphamethylstyrene, vinyltoluene, divinylbenzene, vinyl chloride, vinyl esters of carboxylic acids containing up to 18 carbon atoms; alkanediol dimethacrylates and diacrylate, said alkane diol containing up to 10 carbon atoms; polyethylene glycol diacrylate and dimethacrylate; trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate, whereby the content of the said third monomer or monomers does not exceed 40% by weight of the amount of the total monomer mixture.

Claim 5

The soft contact lenses as claimed in claim 2, whereby the content of said third group monomer is 30-5% by weight of the amount of the total monomer mixture.

Claim 6

The soft contact lenses as claimed in claim 2, wherein the mixing ratio of the first group monomer and the second group monomer is 1:3.5 to 1:1 by weight, and the third group monomer is selected from the group consisting of lower alkyl acrylate and methacrylate, styrene and di-, tri- and tetraethylene glycol diacrylate and dimethacrylate, whereby the content of the third group monomer is 20-10% by weight of the amount of the total monomeric mixture.

Claim 7

A process for making soft contact lenses comprising cast polymerizing a monomer mixture as defined in claim 1, cooling the resulting copolymer body to a temperature not higher than 0° C, at which it stands in a rigid state, and shaping said body into the lens form in the cooled rigid state.

Claim 8

A process for making soft contact lenses comprising cast-polymerizing a monomer mixture as defined in claim 4 cooling the resulting copolymer body to a temperature not higher than 0° C. at which it stands in a rigid state and shaping said body into the lens form in the cooled rigid state.