Spanish ophthalmic technology company IOT says it has become the first to 3D print personalized progressive lenses, and that lenses made with its Light-Form process are already on sale to consumers. The company says the process creates a complete lens from a single flash of light in a few seconds, without the layer-by-layer build associated with many additive manufacturing methods.
Light-Form also skips the generating and polishing steps used in conventional lens surfacing, according to IOT. The company describes the method as a departure from shaping a lens gradually from a blank and says the forming stage takes seconds. Finishing still follows: unused resin is recovered, the lens surface is hardened, and the lens is mapped.
How the process works
The technology is based on stabilized frontal photopolymerization. In IOT’s account, light cures the whole volume of the lens in one pass. The company argues that a new production method for personalized progressive lenses must reproduce the intended optical design precisely, not merely produce a recognizable shape. It says Light-Form combines the design freedom of digital manufacturing with those optical requirements, allowing additive manufacturing to produce prescription lenses at commercial optical quality. IOT also sees the approach opening more options for future lens architectures and individualized designs.
“Light-Form demonstrates how scientific research can change the way ophthalmic lenses are made,” said José Alonso, co-founder and CINO of IOT. He added that pairing optical precision with a new production method could help optical partners create personalized products, test new lens architectures, and run more flexible manufacturing.
Resource use and production footprint
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 these figures cover the manufacturing stage only, leaving out other parts of the product life cycle.
IOT presents Light-Form as a way to redesign 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, the company envisions compact machines making custom lenses inside optical stores, putting production closer to the customer and reducing 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, that 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 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 suggests custom optical shapes could eventually be useful in virtual reality as well.
The company’s plans sit alongside other additive manufacturing projects in vision correction. Luxexcel, an early example in prescription eyewear, built lenses layer by layer in a material jetting process and could print 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. 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 a patient, designing a lens, and fitting it in one clinic visit. The work earned a Gold Medal at the Shanghai International Exhibition of Inventions in June 2026.
Those projects show additive manufacturing moving further into optical production. For now, IOT’s central claim is that its personalized progressive lenses are already reaching consumers, with the company positioning Light-Form as a step toward more localized, flexible lens manufacturing.