IOT and VisionLab sell first volumetric 3D printed progressive lenses, cutting energy use 90%
Spanish optical technology company IOT and retailer VisionLab put the first volumetric 3D printed progressive lenses on sale in Spain on October 6, 2026, the first commercial use of IOT’s Light-Form Technology and the first time a retailer has sold the lens type anywhere.
Conventional progressive lenses are ground and polished to prescription. Light-Form instead cures a complete lens geometry in a single flash of light, a volumetric photopolymerization process rather than layer-by-layer printing. IOT says the method builds a full lens in seconds, in one step.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Energy use vs. conventional production | down 90% |
| Waste vs. conventional production | down 76% |
| Water consumption | eliminated |
| IOT lens output (annual, all technologies) | ~35 million lenses |
| Countries IOT operates in | 70+ |
IOT, founded in Madrid in 2005 as a Complutense University spin-off, describes Light-Form as the result of more than two decades of research. The company says the lenses meet the precision and optical quality standards required for commercial prescription eyewear, though it has not published specific optical tolerance or refractive accuracy figures, or pricing for consumers.
IOT is already positioning the technology for smart glasses and augmented reality, where device makers need to fit personalized prescriptions into compact optical assemblies, a manufacturing problem IOT calls one of the sector’s main technical obstacles. The comparison that matters here is Luxexcel, the Dutch company that built an inkjet-based 3D printing process for prescription lenses and was acquired by Meta for smart glasses work. VoxelMatters notes that Luxexcel’s system was large and expensive and never moved past being technically promising; IOT’s volumetric approach is physically different (whole-lens curing instead of droplet deposition) and is launching through a mainstream retail chain rather than a device partnership.
Missing: per-lens price, prescription range and optical tolerance specs, and VisionLab’s store rollout numbers.