IOT, a Spanish ophthalmic technology company, says it is the first to 3D print personalized progressive lenses. Its Light-Form technology forms a complete lens from a single flash of light in a few seconds, and the company says lenses made this way are already on sale to consumers. The process does not build a lens layer by layer, and it skips the generating and polishing steps used in conventional surfacing.
What changes in the forming step
The core of the process is stabilized frontal photopolymerization. Instead of shaping a lens gradually from a blank, Light-Form cures the entire volume of the lens in one pass, with the forming stage taking seconds. That is a different proposition from both conventional surfacing and layer-by-layer additive manufacturing. For progressive lenses, the optical design must be reproduced precisely, not merely given a recognizable shape; IOT 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.
After forming, the lens still goes through finishing. Unused resin is recovered to limit waste, the surface is hardened, and the lens is mapped. Those steps matter because they separate a fast forming operation from a complete, usable prescription lens. IOT's resource comparison is also limited to manufacturing: it says the method uses no water, needs 90% less energy and produces 76% less waste than conventional methods. The company does not extend those figures to the full product life cycle.
José Alonso, co-founder and CINO of IOT, said Light-Form shows how scientific research can 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, try new lens architectures and run more flexible manufacturing.
A production-chain argument, not only a faster step
IOT frames Light-Form as a way to redesign the production chain. Larger installations could use several printing heads to raise output without taking up much floor space, while compact machines could eventually make custom lenses inside optical stores. That would move production closer to the customer and reduce the need to hold stock. These are described as possibilities and development directions, not as installed systems across the market.
Carolina Gago, IOT's COO, said the value lies in rethinking the production workflow. She linked resin recovery and lower water and energy requirements to resource use, and said 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 implication is organizational as well as technical. Capacity could be arranged around demand in a local area 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 also says optical partners would remain central to vision correction and customer service, so the model is not presented as direct-to-consumer lens production.
Roadmap extends to smart glasses
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. If that works, it could make those devices thinner and lighter. The company also suggests that custom optical shapes could eventually be useful in virtual reality. These are roadmap items, not commercial products described in the announcement.
Where Light-Form sits in additive optics
The company is not the first to pursue digitally manufactured prescription optics, though its claimed forming method is distinctive. Luxexcel was an early example in prescription eyewear. Conventional prescription lenses tend to be made through a process of around 30 steps, which requires large inventories and produces high wastage. Luxexcel instead built lenses layer by layer in a material jetting process; its platform could print single-vision and freeform lenses and multifocal progressive designs. It also embedded waveguides into prescription lenses for smart glasses, the same direction IOT is now exploring. Meta later acquired Luxexcel as part of its AR technology efforts.
More recently, the approach has moved into point-of-care contact lenses. A University of Waterloo team has developed a system that 3D prints custom contact lenses in roughly 20 minutes. That raises the prospect that a patient could be measured, have a lens designed and walk out wearing it after one clinic 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, but they do not prove that any one process will replace conventional lens manufacturing at scale. IOT's strongest immediate claim is narrower: personalized progressive lenses made with Light-Form are already reaching consumers. The wider significance depends on how well the process reproduces optical designs across prescriptions, how finishing and mapping are controlled in production, and whether compact in-store machines can be deployed economically. On the evidence presented, Light-Form is best understood as a new forming route with a production-chain vision attached, rather than a settled replacement for established surfacing.