A Shining Example of Contact Lens Manufacturing

Xiao-Yu Song, Global Head of R&D, Vision, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), tells us more about this technique and how it is being used by the company.

Can you outline what single point diamond turning (SPDT) is and how it applies to the manufacture of superior contact lenses?

Diamond turning is one piece of a high-tech process J&J uses in the R&D, pilot line, and manufacturing of contact lenses. Diamonds are one of the hardest materials on Earth and are able to cut metals with a high degree of precision. J&J uses diamond-tipped cutting tools to develop and polish the surfaces of the metal machine parts used to shape its contact lenses.

Diamond turning creates durable metal parts with extremely smooth, mirror-like surfaces that are precise in their shape and design on a sub-micron scale.This precise, high-tech process – along with our proprietary lens material formulations, optical designs, and manufacturing processes – enables J&J to produce contact lenses that deliver high performance results for patients’ vision correction needs.

What is distinctive about J&J’s approach to SPDT?

J&J serves patients around the world, so consistency in delivering high-quality products for a broad array of needs is crucial. Our ability to shape contact lenses precisely translates into better patient outcomes when we consider factors like optics quality, fit, and comfort. With diamond turning, that process is much more efficient, precise, and repeatable.

Let’s take ACUVUE OASYS MAX 1-Day multifocal contact lenses as an example.The precise optical surface is one essential enabler of our ability to deliver a multitude of innovations in a very small medical device – the necessary vision correction; the OptiBlue Technology (which filters 60 percent of blue-violet light); the TearStable Technology (which optimizes wetting agent distribution throughout the lens and on the surface, and prolongs tear film stability); and the Pupil Optimized Design for multifocal vision – a unique optical design system that takes into account the natural pupil variation occurring both across the refractive error range and as patients age.

Our contact lens design, development and manufacturing process is an end-to-end process that undergoes rigorous quality testing. As a manufacturer of billions of contact lenses per year, it’s crucial that our tools are extremely precise and durable, to enable consistency and quality of our lenses.

How does digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) play a role in the contact lens development process?

Digitalization is incorporated into every aspect of our contact lens research, development, and manufacturing processes. The diamond turning technique allows engineers to cut with extremely high precision in a process that takes minutes rather than hours or days. Being able to quickly create precise physical tools to make contact lenses and evaluate new design performance reduces the time needed to evaluate novel concepts and technologies. We are constantly exploring ways to further enhance our design, build, and test processes, and digitalization is an inherent part of that exploration.

J&J has adapted many of the latest innovations in robotics to automate and improve numerous aspects of its manufacturing process. We have also implemented AI concepts, such as machine learning, into many of our proprietary processes, including those for inspecting contact lenses.