Spanish ophthalmic technology company IOT says it is the first to 3D print personalized progressive lenses, using a process it calls Light-Form. The company says the method can create a lens from a single flash of light in a few seconds, and that lenses made this way are already on sale to consumers.
Light-Form is based on stabilized frontal photopolymerization. Instead of building a lens layer by layer or shaping it gradually from a blank, the process cures the whole volume of the lens in one pass. IOT says that forming stage takes seconds. The lens then goes through several finishing steps: unused resin is recovered to limit waste, the surface is hardened, and the lens is mapped. According to IOT, the method also skips the generating and polishing steps that conventional lens surfacing depends on.
Resource claims and optical requirements
IOT says the process is 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 these figures cover the manufacturing stage only.
IOT argues that a new production method for personalized progressive lenses must reproduce the intended optical design precisely, not merely produce a recognizable shape. The company says Light-Form combines the design freedom of digital manufacturing with these 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 the technology demonstrated how scientific research could change ophthalmic lens manufacturing. 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 the production chain
IOT presents Light-Form as a way to redesign the production chain, not just to 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. That would place production next to the customer and reduce the need to hold stock.
Carolina Gago, COO of IOT, said the value lay in rethinking the production workflow. She noted that 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 approach could mean organizing capacity around local demand rather than 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.
Beyond conventional 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 could make those devices thinner and lighter. The company also suggests that custom optical shapes could eventually be useful in virtual reality.
The company is not the only group applying additive manufacturing to vision correction. 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. Conventional prescription lenses tend to involve around 30 steps, requiring large inventories and producing high wastage. Luxexcel 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 moving into optical production, while IOT says its personalized progressive lenses are already reaching consumers.