The Most Innovative 3D Printed Glasses on the Market

When you think of 3D printing especially in the medical sector, one of the most important benefits of the technology is the fact that it can make fully-customizable parts. It probably comes as no surprise then that one of the areas where we are seeing a growth of 3D printed products is in eyewear. Indeed, the market is expected to reach $3.4 billion by 2028 from $182 million in 2018. Thanks to 3D printing, glass frames are able to be customized to perfectly fit each user’s face, allowing for a lighter, more comfortable fit. We decided to take a closer look at the leading examples of 3D printing in glasses, both optical and sunglasses to understand the available options on the market. Here they are listed in alphabetical order.

3D Printed Glasses for Dyslexic Children

Abeye is a French startup incubated by ATOL Les Opticiens that manufactures electronic glasses to improve the well-being of its wearer. One of its latest range of glasses is called Lexilens, a solution to relieve people suffering from dyslexia. Concretely, the wearer can activate a filter by a simple pressure, thus removing all the mirror images seen by the dyslexic person. And if we mention it in our selection, it’s because additive manufacturing played a key role in the entire R&D phase of the project. The teams were able to test many different frames and multiply the iteration using HP Multi Jet Fusion.

Photo Credits: Abeye

Sunglasses Developed by Adidas

Many sports brands have already used additive manufacturing to produce various sporting gear and accessories and Adidas is no exception to that. The German sports brand recently announced it would be using 3D printing to design the frame of their latest pair of sunglasses. These frames, called 3D CMPT, were manufactured in collaboration with Marcolin Group, a company already known for working with top brands such as Tom Ford, Moncler, and Guess. The unique model, which stands out not only because of its light weight of merely 20 grams, features a special spiral structure. It was created by using flexible nylon with a special coating, which gives the glasses a rubberized effect, Adidas enhanced the glasses with non slip contact points on the nose pad to improve the stability and make them as comfortable as possible.