Spanish ophthalmic technology company IOT says it has become the first to 3D print personalized progressive lenses, using a process called Light-Form Technology that forms a complete lens with a single flash of light in a few seconds. The company says lenses made this way are already on sale to consumers.
Unlike the layer-by-layer approach familiar in many additive manufacturing processes, Light-Form cures the whole volume of the lens in one pass. IOT says the method also skips the generating and polishing steps on which conventional lens surfacing depends. The result is not merely a lens-shaped object, according to the company: a production method for personalized progressive lenses must reproduce the intended optical design precisely.
A single exposure, then finishing
IOT describes the core of the process as stabilized frontal photopolymerization. Light cures the entire lens volume at once rather than building it gradually from a blank. The forming stage takes seconds, but the lens is not finished at that point. Unused resin is recovered to limit waste, the surface is hardened, and the lens is mapped before it is complete.
The company presents Light-Form as combining the design freedom of digital manufacturing with demanding optical requirements, so that additive manufacturing can produce prescription lenses at commercial optical quality. It says the approach could open more options for future lens architectures and individualized solutions. Those are company claims; the announcement does not provide independent optical performance data or clinical results.
IOT also claims resource savings compared with conventional production. It says the method uses no water in manufacturing, requires 90% less energy and produces 76% less waste. The company notes that these figures cover the manufacturing stage only, rather than the full life cycle of a lens.
Production closer to the customer
The company frames Light-Form as a way to rethink 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, IOT envisions compact machines making custom lenses inside optical stores, placing production nearer the customer and reducing the need to hold stock.
“The value lies in rethinking the production workflow,” said Carolina Gago, IOT’s COO, according to the announcement. She said resin recovery and lower water and energy requirements address how resources are used, while compact equipment could support production closer to consumers. IOT says it is working to translate these capabilities into practical manufacturing options.
For optical laboratories, the company suggests, this could mean organizing capacity around local demand instead of relying only on centralized surfacing equipment. For wearers, IOT says the long-term benefit would be faster access to lenses made for them. The company adds that optical partners would still play the central role in vision correction and customer service.
Beyond spectacles
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 those devices thinner and lighter. It also suggests custom optical shapes could eventually be useful in virtual reality.
The announcement places Light-Form alongside other additive manufacturing efforts in optics. Luxexcel, acquired by Meta, built prescription lenses layer by layer in a material jetting process and embedded waveguides into lenses for smart glasses. More recently, a University of Waterloo team developed a system that 3D prints custom contact lenses in roughly 20 minutes, raising the prospect of measuring, designing and fitting a lens in a single clinic visit. IOT says its personalized progressive lenses are already reaching consumers, while broader changes to lens production remain a matter of planned development and partner adoption.