Spanish ophthalmic technology company IOT says it is the first to 3D print personalized progressive lenses, using a process called Light-Form that creates a complete lens from a single flash of light in a few seconds. The company says lenses produced this way are already on sale to consumers.
The method does not build lenses layer by layer, according to IOT. It also skips the generating and polishing steps used in conventional lens surfacing. The company claims the process uses no water in manufacturing, requires 90% less energy and produces 76% less waste than conventional methods, while noting that those figures cover the manufacturing stage only.
How Light-Form forms a lens
Light-Form is based on stabilized frontal photopolymerization. A flash cures the entire volume of the lens in one pass rather than shaping it gradually from a blank, and IOT says the forming stage takes seconds. Finishing steps follow: unused resin is recovered to limit waste, the lens surface is hardened and the lens is mapped.
IOT says a production method for personalized progressive lenses must reproduce the intended optical design precisely, not merely create a recognizable shape. The company 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.
José Alonso, co-founder and CINO of IOT, said Light-Form showed how scientific research could change the way ophthalmic lenses are made. He added that combining 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 presents the technology as a way to redesign the production chain, not just speed up lens forming. 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, placing production closer to the customer and reducing the need to hold stock.
Carolina Gago, COO of IOT, said the value lies in rethinking the production workflow. She noted that resin recovery and lower water and energy requirements address resource use, 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 says this could mean organizing capacity around local demand instead of relying only on centralized surfacing equipment. For wearers, IOT describes the long-term benefit as faster access to lenses made for them. Optical partners would still play a central role in vision correction and customer service, according to the company.
Beyond conventional spectacles
IOT is also exploring 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 suggests that custom optical shapes could eventually be useful in virtual reality as well.
Additive manufacturing moves into optics
IOT is positioning Light-Form as a change in how lens production is organized, not only a new forming step. The company plans to replace reliance on conventional surfacing infrastructure with production set up around local demand, and it sees in-store manufacturing as a possible way to bring personalized lenses closer to the wearer.
Other projects in the 3D printing sector are also using digital manufacturing to make vision correction more personalized and on demand. Luxexcel was an early example in prescription eyewear: conventional lenses tend to be made through about 30 steps, requiring large inventories and producing high wastage, while Luxexcel built lenses layer by layer in a material jetting process. Its platform could print single-vision, freeform and multifocal progressive lenses, and the company also embedded waveguides into prescription lenses for smart glasses. Meta later acquired Luxexcel.
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 moving into optical production, while IOT says its personalized progressive lenses are already reaching consumers.