Progressive eyeglass lenses made with a light-based additive process went on sale in Spain on October 6, 2026. Madrid optics company IOT and optical retailer VisionLab say it is the first time the technology has reached paying customers. VoxelMatters reports that VisionLab is the first retailer anywhere to offer lenses made with IOT's Light-Form process. Against conventional grinding and polishing, the companies claim the process uses no manufacturing water, cuts energy use by 90 percent and cuts waste by 76 percent.
Plenty of 3D-printed products have reached the market. This one is different because it competes with a mature, high-volume industry on that industry's own quality standards. VoxelMatters says the resulting progressive lenses meet the precision and optical quality standards required for commercial prescription eyewear. A progressive lens is among the hardest lens types to make: its power changes gradually across the surface, from distance correction at the top to reading correction at the bottom, with no visible lines. If an additive process can make that geometry well enough to sell through a mainstream optical chain, it has met a high bar.
Who IOT Is
IOT is not a startup testing an idea. VoxelMatters notes that the company was founded in Madrid in 2005 as a spin-off of Complutense University of Madrid. It now operates in more than 70 countries, and its technologies go into approximately 35 million lenses manufactured worldwide each year. The company combines optical design, software and manufacturing technologies, and works as a technology partner to lens laboratories, retailers and optical groups. VoxelMatters describes Light-Form as the result of more than two decades of research.
VoxelMatters quotes IOT co-founder José Alonso and VisionLab managing director Anne Delmas on the launch. Alonso calls it a milestone for the optical industry. Delmas says that becoming the first retailer in the world to bring the technology to market is a new challenge that could change the future of the optical industry.
How Light-Form Works
The details are worth reading closely, because the companies and the trade press describe the process in different terms. VoxelMatters calls it "volumetric" 3D printing and says it cures the full lens geometry in a single light exposure, where layer-based printing builds a part one slice at a time. IOT's own Light-Form technology site says the technology is based on "stabilized frontal photopolymerization," and that lenses are created in a single step, in seconds, with a single flash of light. The site's tagline is: "No Structures. No Layers. No Voxels. No Polishing."
That tagline tells makers a lot. FDM printers lay down beads of plastic, and MSLA and DLP resin printers cure one thin slice at a time. Anyone who has printed a clear part knows that layers leave surface texture, which is a problem for an optical surface. IOT's pitch is that Light-Form forms the lens without layers or voxels, and it pairs that with a claim of no polishing.
The site does not publish its optical setup, resin chemistry or tolerances. Its description is high-level, and readers should treat the specific mechanism as IOT's claim until more technical detail comes out. The site's process description lists lens printing through light polymerization, waste reduction through resin recovery, hardening of the Light-Form surface, and lens mapping.
IOT says its first Light-Form laboratory is in Madrid, within one of the company's innovation hubs. Neither source says where VisionLab's lenses are made day to day, and nothing in them suggests lenses are made in the shop.
Where the Sustainability Numbers Come From
VoxelMatters frames the comparison this way: conventional ophthalmic lens production grinds and polishes each lens to its prescription, while Light-Form replaces that process with controlled volumetric photopolymerization. A process that forms the lens close to its final shape skips subtractive work, so lower waste, energy and water use is a plausible result.
The figures themselves (no manufacturing water, 90 percent less energy, 76 percent less waste) come from the companies as reported by VoxelMatters. Neither source cites an independent lifecycle assessment. VoxelMatters says the comparison is against conventional methods in manufacturing, so resin production, coatings and logistics do not appear to be part of the stated comparison. The direction of the claim makes sense, but the exact numbers are the companies' own.
The Road IOT Is Pitching
The Light-Form site lays out a "Visions for the Future" section that goes well past a single Madrid lab:
- Make lenses anywhere. The site describes producing prescription lenses wherever they are needed, without complex infrastructure or specialized technicians.
- Manufacture at scale. The site talks about scaling with multiple printing heads, with high output and a minimal footprint.
- Produce in-store. The site describes making fully personalized lenses on site in minutes, using compact equipment and ready-to-use material capsules.
- Apply Rx to smart glasses. The site says prescription optics could be printed directly onto waveguides and flat substrates.
The last item matters most strategically. VoxelMatters says IOT sees smart glasses and augmented reality as one of the most promising areas for Light-Form beyond conventional eyewear, because device makers need to build personalized prescriptions into increasingly complex optical assemblies. It compares IOT's approach with Luxexcel, the Dutch company that developed an inkjet-based process for 3D printing prescription lenses and was later acquired by Meta, which wanted the technology to integrate prescriptions into smart glasses. IOT's approach cures the whole lens volume at once instead of depositing material droplet by droplet, and it arrives in a more compact form.
None of these future uses has launched. What has launched is one retailer in one country selling one lens type, progressives, made with a process whose first dedicated lab is in Madrid.
What It Means for Makers
You will not be printing your own prescription glasses on a resin printer any time soon, and nothing here suggests otherwise. The process is proprietary, and the chemistry is not public.
The launch still matters to the maker world for three reasons:
- It is a commercial case for non-layered photopolymer printing. A retail product that must meet commercial optical quality is stronger evidence than a demo that curing a whole part in one exposure can work outside the lab. Ideas that prove themselves in industry sometimes reach prosumer hardware eventually, though nothing here says that will happen or when.
- It shows why getting rid of layers matters. Anyone who has fought layer lines on a clear MSLA part knows why IOT puts "No Layers" in its tagline. For optics, light pipes and other clear parts, hiding layers is often a big share of the post-processing work.
- Resin recovery is a real design goal. IOT lists waste reduction through resin recovery as part of the Light-Form process, not an afterthought. Resin users who throw away vat leftovers and IPA wash should take note.
Bottom Line
IOT and VisionLab have shipped what they describe as the first progressive lenses made with a single-flash, layerless light process, through a mainstream optical retail channel. The environmental claims are attractive but unaudited, and the technical details are thin. The smart-glasses roadmap is still a pitch. Even so, getting a non-layered photopolymer process through the quality demands of prescription eyewear is a real industrial milestone if the companies' claims hold up. It is worth watching whether the process spreads beyond Spain and beyond its first lab.
