Abstract: A serving utensil, which in a preferred embodiment is in the form of an ice cream scoop that can be heated in a conventional or home microwave oven to facilitate scooping a frozen confection from a container. The serving utensil includes bowl portion formed from a substantially rigid material that becomes heated when subjected to microwave radiation in a conventional microwave oven and handle portion, attached to the bowl portion, formed from a substantially rigid material that substantially restricts the absorption of microwave energy. The handle portion includes a recess in its upper side approximate the bowl portion adapted to receive a user's thumb therein and a transverse groove in its underside, longitudinally aligned with the recess and adapted to receive a user's index finger therein.

Abstract: A method for serving a frozen confection includes the steps of: (a) providing a utensil including a bowl portion formed from a substantially rigid material that becomes heated when subjected to microwave radiation in a conventional microwave oven and including a handle portion attached to the bowl portion, formed from a substantially rigid material that substantially restricts the absorption of microwave energy; (b) subjecting the utensil to microwave energy for a predetermined period of time, so that the bowl portion becomes heated; and (c) manually gripping the handle portion of the utensil to scoop the frozen confection with the heated bowl portion.

Abstract: A utensil for use, for example, in the home or in restaurants, with a microwave oven for heating food preparation or service vessels (such as a dinner plate) and the food in such vessels. The utensil includes a matrix material and a microwave absorptive material. The utensil may also be configured for direct conductive heat transfer heating of food into which the utensil is immersed. Alternatively, an appliance for applying therapeutic dry or moist heat to the human body may use pellets of the matrix and microwave absorptive material in a flexible moisture and heat transmissive body.

Abstract: An intraocular lens includes an optic body and a pair of cantilevered spiral support members or haptics extending outwardly from a peripheral portion of the optic body. The haptics are formed as portions of an elongate cylindrical body. A method of making the haptics is disclosed which allows the haptic to be of variable cross sectional area, to be aplanar, and to include bends and curves, for example, without introducing undesirable molecular level changes or damage into the material of the haptic, which molecular level changes result in conventional haptics undesirably having a memory of their former shape and resulting dimensional changes (creep) of the conventional haptics over time.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for fabricating biocompatible implants. In particular, the present invention process involves punching out implants from sheet stock. In the exemplary embodiment, the implant is an intraocular lens, wherein the lens haptic is punched from ribbon stock fed through a punch press. The punching operation can be accomplished in a planar punch and die arrangement, or the die can be situated on cooperatively rotating drums. In an alternative embodiment, the entire intraocular lens is punched from sheet stock. In this process, the lens optics are formed first in the sheet stock to provide individual convex or concave hemispheres, spaced along the length and width of the sheet. The sheet stock is aligned with a die, and the die punches out the lens such that the lens optic coincides with the hemispheres and the lens haptics are punched therealong simultaneously.

Abstract: The present invention provides an improved intraocular lens haptic having an enlarged anchoring head and an integrally formed support portion extending therefrom. An oblong hole is provided in the anchoring head. The haptic is punched from a sheet or ribbon of polyvinylidene fluoride film, and thereafter a lens optic is cast around the anchoring head. During the casting operation, the lens optic material fills in the oblong hole and all spaces around the anchoring head. Thus, the anchoring head is firmly embedded in an outer periphery of the lens optic. Because the haptic is punched, it can be fabricated to have a variety of different anchoring head shapes and to have a variety of support portion shapes with varying numbers of bends at different bend angles. The orientation of the oblong hole within the anchoring head is also easily changed as is the orientation of the anchoring head relative to the support portion, although both structures are integral and formed from a single sheet of material.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for folding or curling a flexible lens and for inserting the lens into an eye. The apparatus includes a loading and folding head having a slidable tubular member for curling the lens by constricting a loading chamber within the head, a cannula for entering the eye, and a body housing a plunger for advancing the curled lens out of the loading and folding head and through the cannula. The tubular lens-curling member is configured to enable the lens to curl gently in cooperation with a retaining lip on a wall of the loading chamber, in one smooth, simple and continuous motion.

Abstract: An apparatus and associated method for deforming and inserting a flexible intraocular lens into an eye which permits the size of an ocular incision to be significantly smaller than the diameter of the intraocular lens being implanted, and its embodiments are suitable for use with lenses having radial flange or projecting filament haptics. The apparatus includes a contoured duct with a pair of internal guiding grooves configured to engage peripheral edges of the lens, curling the lens as it is advanced along the longitudinal duct axis from the elongated inlet to the coaxially aligned generally circular outlet of the duct. The guiding grooves are mutually opposed and converge along the length of the duct to essentially the periphery of the duct outlet.