To celebrate a year-long partnership, the companies supplied seventeen school children at Winston-Salem, North Carolina with 3D printed lenses.

The lenses, which are customisable and can be produced on-demand, are made with an acrylic-based resin using Luxexcel’s material jetting 3D printer – the VisionEngine. The machine is currently capable of producing four lenses an hour.

For several of the children, this will be their first pair of glasses and something both IFB and Luxexcel hope will help them in the classroom. Prior to receiving their glasses, the children were seen at IFB’s optical centre to determine have their vision assessed and to choose their frame of choice.

Michael Pesce, director of social work at Winston-Salem, Forsyth County Schools says: “One of our biggest challenges in public education is meeting all the needs of children. Their medical, health, and physical needs happen beyond the classroom, but those needs are critically important to a child’s educational success.

“That’s why we are so grateful to have community partners like IFB and Luxexcel. Their gift of eyeglasses gives these students the gift of vision, something we could never do alone. At school and at home, vision is a vital part of a child’s overall wellbeing.”

As well as help schoolchildren, the technology acts as a solution to the traditional method of creating ophthalmology lenses, which involves making blank lens disks that are stocked until an order is received. The bespoke lens is then created in a multiple step process. The on-demand technology from Luxexcel removes the need for storage.

The manufacturer has received recognition for this development with certification by the International Standards Organisation.

If you have any news, please email carys@linkpublishing.co.uk or join in with the conversation on Twitter.