Spanish ophthalmic technology company IOT says it has become the first to 3D print personalized progressive lenses, using a method it calls Light-Form Technology. The process forms a complete lens from a single flash of light in a few seconds, and lenses produced this way are already on sale to consumers. There is no layer-by-layer build, and the lens skips the generating and polishing steps that conventional surfacing depends on.
The approach differs from established additive routes, in which a lens is grown gradually from a blank.
How the process forms a lens
Light-Form is based on stabilized frontal photopolymerization. Light cures the entire volume of the lens in one pass rather than shaping it step by step, and that forming stage takes seconds. Several finishing steps follow before a lens is complete: unused resin is recovered to limit waste, the surface is hardened, and the lens is mapped.
Resource use during manufacturing
IOT says the method is considerably lighter on resources than traditional lens production. Compared with conventional methods, it uses no water in manufacturing, needs 90% less energy and produces 76% less waste. The company notes that these figures cover the manufacturing stage only.
Optical quality is the real test
According to IOT, a new production method for personalized progressive lenses must precisely reproduce the intended optical design, not merely produce a recognizable shape. The company says Light-Form combines the design freedom of digital manufacturing with these demanding optical requirements, allowing additive manufacturing to produce prescription lenses at commercial optical quality, and that this opens up more options for future lens architectures and individualized solutions.
José Alonso, co-founder and CINO of IOT, said Light-Form demonstrates how scientific research can change the way ophthalmic lenses are made. He added that pairing optical precision with a new production method could help optical partners create personalized products, try out new lens architectures and run more flexible manufacturing.
Rethinking where lenses are made
IOT presents the technology as a way to redesign the production chain, not just a faster forming step. Larger installations could use several printing heads to raise output without taking up much floor space. Further ahead, the company sees compact machines making custom lenses inside optical stores, which would put production next to the customer and cut the need to hold stock.
Carolina Gago, COO of IOT, said the value lies in rethinking the production workflow: resin recovery and lower water and energy requirements address how resources are used, while compact equipment could support production closer to consumers. She said the company is working to translate these capabilities into practical manufacturing options.
For optical laboratories, that could mean organizing capacity around demand in their area instead of relying only on centralized surfacing equipment. For wearers, IOT says the long-term benefit is faster access to lenses made for them, with optical partners still playing the central role in vision correction and customer service.
Smart glasses on the development roadmap
IOT is also looking beyond conventional spectacles. One option under development is printing prescription optics directly onto the waveguides and flat substrates used in smart glasses and augmented reality headsets, which could make these devices thinner and lighter. The company also suggests that custom optical shapes could eventually be useful in virtual reality.
Additive manufacturing takes aim at conventional lens production
IOT plans to replace reliance on conventional surfacing infrastructure with production set up around local demand, and it sees in-store manufacturing as a possible way to bring personalized lenses closer to the wearer. Other projects in the 3D printing sector likewise use digital manufacturing to make vision correction more personalized and on demand.
Luxexcel was an early example in prescription eyewear. Conventional prescription lenses tend to be made through around 30 steps, which requires holding large inventories and yields high wastage. Luxexcel instead built lenses layer by layer in a material jetting process, and its platform could print single vision, freeform and multifocal progressive designs. It also embedded waveguides into prescription lenses for smart glasses, the same direction IOT is now exploring; Meta later acquired the company as part of its AR technology efforts.
More recently, the approach has moved into point-of-care contact lenses. A team at the University of Waterloo has developed a system that 3D prints custom contact lenses in roughly 20 minutes, raising the prospect that a patient could be measured, have a lens designed and walk out wearing it after a single clinic visit. The work earned a gold medal at the Shanghai International Exhibition of Inventions in June 2026.
Together these projects show additive manufacturing moving into optical production, while IOT says its Light-Form personalized progressive lenses are already reaching consumers.