Spanish ophthalmic technology company IOT says it has become the first to 3D print personalized progressive lenses, and that lenses produced with its Light-Form Technology are already on sale to consumers. The company says the process forms a complete lens from a single flash of light within a few seconds, and that there is no layer-by-layer build.
IOT says the method also skips the generating and polishing steps on which conventional lens surfacing depends. Compared with conventional production, the company reports that it uses no water in manufacturing, needs 90% less energy and produces 76% less waste, while noting that these figures cover the manufacturing stage only.
How Light-Form forms a lens
The process is based on stabilized frontal photopolymerization. Instead of shaping a lens gradually from a blank, light cures the whole volume of the lens in a single pass; IOT says this 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.
IOT argues that a new production method for personalized progressive lenses must precisely reproduce the intended optical design rather than merely produce a recognizable shape. The company says Light-Form pairs the design freedom of digital manufacturing with these demanding optical requirements, so that additive manufacturing can deliver prescription lenses at commercial optical quality. IOT adds that this could open more options for future lens architectures and individualized solutions.
José Alonso, Co-founder and CINO of IOT, said the technology 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 only a faster forming step. Larger installations could use several printing heads to raise output without taking up much floor space. Further ahead, the company envisions compact machines making custom lenses inside optical stores, which would place production next to the customer and reduce the need to hold stock.
Carolina Gago, COO of IOT, said the value lies in rethinking the production workflow, noting that 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, IOT suggests this could mean organizing capacity around demand in their area instead of relying only on centralized surfacing equipment. For wearers, the company says the long-term benefit would be faster access to lenses made for them, while optical partners would still play 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 waveguides and flat substrates used in smart glasses and augmented reality headsets, which the company says could make such devices thinner and lighter. IOT also suggests that custom optical shapes could eventually be useful in virtual reality.
Additive manufacturing takes aim at lens production
IOT frames Light-Form as a change to how lens production is organized, not just a new way to form lenses. The company plans to move away from reliance on conventional surfacing infrastructure toward production set up around local demand, and sees in-store manufacturing as a possible route 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 roughly 30 steps, requiring large inventories and generating high wastage, whereas Luxexcel built lenses layer-by-layer in a material jetting process and 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, and Meta later acquired the company.
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 around 20 minutes, raising the prospect that a patient could be measured, have a lens designed and leave a clinic wearing it after a single 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, with IOT stating that its Light-Form personalized progressive lenses are already reaching consumers.