3D-printed contact lenses offer patient-specific fit in 20 minutes

New platform speeds lens fitting

According to data from a new study by University of Waterloo researchers, a 3D-printed contact lens platform can produce a patient-specific rigid lens in as little as 20 minutes.¹ The platform pairs custom lens design software with a newly developed hydrophilic silicone-acrylate material engineered for vat photopolymerization printing. Investigators say the approach could allow specialized lenses to be designed, manufactured, and dispensed during a single optometry visit.¹

Patients with irregular corneas often need rigid lenses to achieve clear vision, and reaching a stable fit can require several trial lenses across 2 to 4 appointments spread over weeks.² Conventional silicone materials, while biocompatible and highly oxygen permeable, are largely incompatible with additive manufacturing processes, limiting how customization has been approached to date.³ The Waterloo platform targets both barriers by combining a printable silicone formulation with software mapping lens geometry to individual corneal surfaces.¹

A MATLAB-based algorithm translates corneal topography, lens diameter, and edge thickness into spatially resolved thickness maps for lenses designed to correct myopia and hyperopia, with printed thickness gradients ranging from approximately 80 μm to 200 μm.³ The lens is then fabricated using digital light processing, a form of vat photopolymerization, curing the silicone-acrylate resin layer by layer under UV light. Printing takes about 12 minutes per lens, and total fabrication time, including washing and the coating step, is approximately 15 to 20 minutes.³

Layer-by-layer printing left microscopic stair-step irregularities on curved lens surfaces, a known limitation of additive manufacturing for optical devices.⁴ A noncontact fluidization coating, in which the lens is suspended and levitated in a controlled airflow rather than dipped or sprayed, reduced the average step height from approximately 5.0 μm to 1.2 μm, a reduction of roughly 75% to 80%, without altering the lens’s underlying geometry.³

“Our software designs a lens with an inner surface that precisely matches the patient’s cornea and an outer surface that provides the required vision correction,” Sayan Ganguly, PhD, chemistry research associate at the University of Waterloo, said in a statement. “The novel hydrophilic silicone material we created, combined with our manufacturing process, produces smooth, transparent lenses that are comfortable to wear.”¹

The project earned a gold medal at the Shanghai International Invention and Innovation Exhibition in June 2026.¹

Testing continues toward commercialization

According to the study findings, laboratory testing showed that the printed lenses maintained an oxygen permeability of approximately 39 barrer, within the range expected for rigid gas-permeable materials, and an optical transmittance exceeding 90%, stable over 90 days of dry storage.³ Protein adsorption from a model albumin solution over 24 hours was comparable to or lower than that of a commercial rigid lens, and tensile strength, elongation, and Young modulus showed no meaningful change after 90 days of storage.³

Human corneal epithelial cells cultured with the printed lenses maintained viability above 95% through 5 days, with no evidence of delayed cytotoxicity in live-dead fluorescence assays.³ The research team is preparing in vivo studies to further evaluate safety and performance on the eye, and researchers have filed a provisional patent for the hydrophilic silicone material while preparing a full patent application.¹

The team is advancing the platform toward commercialization with the Centre for Vision and Eye Research, a joint institute of the University of Waterloo and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.¹ Investigators say the coating step is compatible with rigid lens designs used for irregular corneas, including cases currently requiring reverse-geometry or scleral fittings.² A timeline for clinical availability has not been announced.

“Our technology produces lenses with patient-specific surfaces for a precise fit while delivering the optical clarity and mechanical performance expected of commercial contact lenses,” said Shirley Tang, PhD, professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo, in a statement.¹

The platform is not yet available for clinical use, and ODs cannot fit or order these lenses today. If validated in vivo and cleared for commercial use, chairside 3D printing could shorten the fitting timeline for patients with irregular corneas who currently need multiple visits for rigid or scleral lens fittings. Optometrists managing keratoconus, corneal ectasia, or post-surgical corneas may want to watch for peer-reviewed in vivo data before this technology reaches practice.

References

1. 3D-printed contact lenses for your eyes only in just 20 minutes. Waterloo News. July 14, 2026. Accessed July 14, 2026. https://uwaterloo.ca/news/media

2. Gogri P, Bhombal FA. A new technique for fitting of tricurve rigid gas-permeable contact lens in penetrating keratoplasty eyes using Scheimpflug imaging. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2020;68(6):1057-1060. doi:10.4103/ijo.IJO_936_19

3. Ganguly S, Stinson A, Parniani F, Tang XS. Patient-specific hard contact lenses fabricated by vat photopolymerization printing and non-contact fluidization coating. Mater Des. 2026;268. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2026.116483

4. Alam F, Elsherif M, et al. Prospects for additive manufacturing in contact lens devices. Adv Eng Mater. 2021;23(4):2000941.