Protective Eyewear with Vision Correction Using Continuous 3D Printing

The US Army has identified a need to develop a material and process to manufacture ballistic protection eyewear lenses with integrated prescription correction for its soldiers. Combat eye protection defends soldiers against ballistic fragmentation and environmental hazards, all while remaining transparent under combat conditions. However, users who require prescription vision correction need to wear a Universal Prescription Lens Carrier (UPLC) that allows their corrective lenses to be positioned between the ballistic protection and their eye. This setup causes the user to experience limited field of view through the prescription lenses, in addition to causing an additional logistical hurdle. Azul 3D, along with their partners at Northwestern University, are proposing to develop an additive manufacturing solution combining high-quality Optical resins with their patented HARP 3D printing process to produce ballistic protection lenses with integrated vision correction. Azul 3D’s HARP printing process has been shown to be differentiated in its ability to print materials with a high degree of quality and uniformity. This includes a focused effort to develop printing solutions for high performance optical resins, such as those from industry leader PPG, that maintain the full properties of the material. Due to the difficulty of achieving all the requisite material properties for lenses, includingoptical quality, impact strength, and weatherability, only a few companies are able to technologically and economically supply the ophthalmic industry today. As such, Azul 3D’s strategy is to leverage these highly engineered materials and enable their 3D Printing, rather than developing a new optical material.