Spanish ophthalmic technology company IOT says it has become the first to 3D print personalized progressive lenses, using a process it calls Light-Form Technology that forms a complete lens from a single flash of light in a few seconds. According to the company, lenses produced this way are already on sale to consumers.
The approach departs from both conventional surfacing and layer-by-layer additive manufacturing. There is no gradual build-up of material, and the lens skips the generating and polishing stages on which traditional lens production depends.
One exposure instead of a layer-by-layer build
Light-Form is based on stabilized frontal photopolymerization. Rather than shaping a lens progressively from a blank, the process cures the entire volume of the lens in a single pass, a forming stage that IOT says 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.
The company also claims the method is considerably lighter on resources than traditional lens production. Compared with conventional methods, it says manufacturing uses no water, requires 90% less energy and produces 76% less waste. IOT notes that these figures cover the manufacturing stage only.
IOT argues that 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 — a claim it makes about its own process. IOT adds that the approach opens more options for future lens architectures and individualized solutions.
José Alonso, Co-founder and CINO of IOT, described Light-Form as an example of 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 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 reducing the need to hold stock.
Carolina Gago, COO of IOT, said the value lies in rethinking the production workflow, with resin recovery and lower water and energy requirements addressing 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. The company states that 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 could make such 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 frames Light-Form as a change to how lens production is organized, not only a new way to form lenses. It plans to replace reliance on conventional surfacing infrastructure with production set up around local demand, and sees in-store manufacturing as a possible route to bringing personalized lenses closer to the wearer.
Other projects in the 3D printing sector pursue similar goals. Luxexcel was an early example in prescription eyewear: conventional prescription lenses tend to be manufactured through a process of around 30 steps, which requires large inventories and yields high wastage, whereas Luxexcel built lenses layer by layer in a material jetting process, with a platform able to print single vision, freeform and multifocal progressive designs. The company also embedded waveguides into prescription lenses for smart glasses — the same direction IOT is now exploring — and was later acquired by Meta 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 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.
These projects show additive manufacturing moving into optical production. IOT says its Light-Form personalized progressive lenses are already reaching consumers.