Spanish ophthalmic technology company IOT says it has become the first to 3D print personalized progressive lenses, and that lenses produced this way are already on sale to consumers. The process, called Light-Form, forms a complete lens from a single flash of light in a matter of seconds instead of building it up layer by layer.
IOT says the method also skips the generating and polishing steps on which conventional lens surfacing depends, and that it is considerably lighter on resources than traditional production. Compared with conventional manufacturing, Light-Form uses no water, requires 90% less energy and generates 76% less waste. The company notes that these figures cover the manufacturing stage only.
A single exposure instead of a gradual build
The forming step relies on stabilized frontal photopolymerization: light cures the entire volume of the lens in one pass rather than shaping it progressively from a blank, and that stage takes seconds. A lens is complete only after several finishing steps — unused resin is recovered to limit waste, the surface is hardened, and the lens is mapped.
IOT argues that any new production route for personalized progressive lenses must reproduce the intended optical design precisely, not merely arrive at a recognizable shape. The company says Light-Form combines the design freedom of digital manufacturing with those demanding optical requirements, allowing additive manufacturing to reach commercial optical quality for prescription lenses, and that it widens the options for future lens architectures and individualized solutions.
“Light-Form demonstrates how scientific research can change the way ophthalmic lenses are made,” said José Alonso, co-founder and CINO of IOT. He added that pairing optical precision with a new production method could help optical partners create personalized products, test new lens architectures and run more flexible manufacturing.
Rethinking where lenses are made
IOT frames the technology as a way to reorganize the production chain rather than simply a faster forming step. Larger installations could run several printing heads to raise output without consuming much floor space. Further ahead, the company envisages compact machines producing custom lenses inside optical stores, placing production next to the customer and cutting the need to hold stock.
“The value lies in rethinking the production workflow,” said Carolina Gago, COO of IOT. Resin recovery and lower water and energy requirements address how resources are used, she said, while compact equipment could support production closer to consumers; 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 points to faster access to lenses made for them as the long-term benefit, while stressing that optical partners would retain 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 such devices thinner and lighter. The company likewise suggests that custom optical shapes may eventually be useful in virtual reality.
Additive manufacturing meets lens production
Other projects in the 3D printing sector have also applied digital manufacturing to vision correction. Luxexcel was an early example in prescription eyewear: rather than the roughly 30 steps of conventional lens production, with the large inventories and high wastage they entail, it built lenses layer by layer in a material jetting process, covering single vision, freeform and multifocal progressive designs, and embedded waveguides into prescription lenses for smart glasses — the direction IOT is now exploring. Meta later acquired Luxexcel as part of its AR technology efforts.
More recently the approach has moved into point-of-care contact lenses. A University of Waterloo team 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.
Taken together, these projects show additive manufacturing moving into optical production. For its part, IOT says its Light-Form personalized progressive lenses are already reaching consumers.