A hand-held, sterile, device designed to uniformly fold a foldable intraocular lens (IOL) in order to reduce its natural physical size so that the IOL can be removed from the IOL folder with an implantation forceps and be implanted into the anterior or posterior chamber of the eye through a small incision during ophthalmic surgery. It is typically made of synthetic material (e.g., polypropylene) and is designed to accept the IOL in its natural unfolded state, when in place the operator activates the folding mechanism. This is a single-use device.