Spanish ophthalmic technology company IOT says it has become the first to 3D print personalized progressive lenses, using a process it calls Light-Form. According to the company, the method creates a complete lens from a single flash of light in a few seconds, and lenses made this way are already on sale to consumers. The claim is notable because progressive lenses require precise optical designs rather than only a recognizable shape.
Light-Form does not build a lens layer by layer. Instead it relies on stabilized frontal photopolymerization, in which light cures the entire volume of the lens in one pass rather than gradually shaping it from a blank. The forming stage takes seconds. Finishing still follows: unused resin is recovered to limit waste, the lens surface is hardened, and the lens is mapped. IOT says the process also skips the generating and polishing steps used in conventional surfacing.
Resource and optical claims
IOT says the method is much 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 says those figures cover the manufacturing stage only, a boundary that matters when assessing the overall environmental profile of a lens.
The company argues that a new production method for personalized progressive lenses must precisely reproduce the intended optical design, not merely produce a plausible shape. IOT says Light-Form combines the design freedom of digital manufacturing with demanding optical requirements, allowing additive manufacturing to produce prescription lenses at commercial optical quality. It adds that the approach could open more 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. In IOT’s account, pairing optical precision with a new production method could help optical partners create personalized products, test new lens architectures and run more flexible manufacturing. Those are stated possibilities and partnership goals, not independently verified outcomes.
Rethinking the production chain
IOT presents Light-Form as a way to reorganize lens production, 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 envisions compact machines making custom lenses inside optical stores. That would put production closer to the customer and reduce the need to hold stock.
“The value lies in rethinking the production workflow,” said Carolina Gago, COO of IOT. 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, 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 says optical partners would still play the central role in vision correction and customer service.
Smart glasses and industry context
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 those devices thinner and lighter. The company also suggests that custom optical shapes could eventually be useful in virtual reality. These remain development directions rather than announced products.
The broader additive manufacturing sector has been moving toward optical production. Luxexcel was an early example in prescription eyewear, building lenses layer by layer in a material jetting process and offering single-vision, freeform and multifocal progressive designs; it also embedded waveguides into prescription lenses for smart glasses, a direction IOT is now exploring. Meta later acquired Luxexcel as part of its AR technology efforts.
More recently, 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 leave a clinic wearing it after one visit. The work earned a Gold Medal at the Shanghai International Exhibition of Inventions in June 2026.
These projects show additive manufacturing entering optical production, but they do not by themselves prove that IOT’s process has achieved broad commercial scale. IOT says Light-Form’s personalized progressive lenses are already reaching consumers, while in-store manufacturing and prescription optics for smart glasses remain part of its longer-term plans.