Dentsply Sirona is a leading provider of professional dental products and technologies. They are the world’s largest dental equipment maker with products in over 120 countries and factories in 21 countries.
With dental ceramic being one of the most important materials in dentistry, Dentsply Sirona has a dedicated research and development team for the material. Ceramic has proven tough to manufacture, however, because the conditions to create perfect ceramics are difficult to replicate. After extensive research, the team recommended 3D printing as the best technique to manufacture dental ceramics. Their technology of choice? ADMAFLEX, by Admatec.
3D Printing Ceramics
They now outsource their ceramic production to Admatec, who manufacture ceramic support structure to enable glazing artificial teeth homogeneously. The ceramics are manufactured on the Admaflex 130 3D printer (available through GoPrint3D), which 3D prints fully dense ceramic parts with zero waste. It utilises a patented technology called ADMAFLEX, which is effectively an advanced version of DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology. The technology is super-reliable, fast, and accurate with an integrated DLP light source that cures resin as it’s printed.
Dentsply Sirona manufacture 250+ ceramic support structures every month with 3D printing. The models are identical replicas of one another. Prior to this, they would use traditional techniques like ceramic injection moulding (CIM) to manufacture products, but this is costlier and more time-consuming than 3D printing. 3D printing has proven itself to be the most efficient engineering solution for manufactruing dental ceramics.
Although Dentsply Sirona outsource their production of dental ceramics to Admatec, you can bring production in-house by investing in the Admaflex 130 3D printer. This state-of-the-art 3D printer replaces traditional manufacturing techniques and prints at speeds up to 20-25mm p/hour. It’s available directly through GoPrint3D.
3D Printer: Admaflex 130
Material used: Zirconium Oxide
This information was first published on the Admatec website.