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| LuxExcel's new additive manufacturing compentence center--Courtesy LuxExcel |
Dutch company LuxExcel has developed a 3-D printing process that can produce reading glasses, and is working toward being able to create prescription spectacles with custom frames.
The 3-D print technology for eyewear is called Printoptical, and is based on a large-format commercial inkjet printer that is fitted with adapted print heads that deposit droplets of fluid plastic to form the shape of the lens. The difference between it and other 3-D printers is that droplets flow into each other versus forming layers. Lasers are used to measure the emerging form, and once it has taken on the desired shape the plastic is cured with ultraviolet light. By repeating the process a complex lens with smooth surfaces that don't need to be polished is created.
"We think the level of precision will go well beyond that provided by injection molding," Richard van de Vrie, the company's CEO, told The Economist. He said that in time the technology will be able to 3-D print prescription lenses using a computerized eye scan. It also would be able to print the frames on demand as well as the lenses.
The applications of 3-D printer technology have taken off in the world of medical devices. Last month, researchers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital used a 3-D bioprinting process to create functional synthetic blood vessels that could someday be used to develop transplanted tissues and to test drugs outside of the body. Earlier this year, a team of researchers from the U.S. and China used 3-D printing to create a realistic model of a cancerous tumor.
- read The Economist story