Californian dental 3D printing company SprintRay has just released a major update to its digital dentistry ecosystem. A whole host of new resin profiles, drastically improved slicing performance, and a new software feature dubbed ‘Pixel Toning’ were released. Let’s take a closer look. Pixel Toning Unlike grayscaling features found on other 3D printers, Pixel Toning […]
At Lab Day 2020 in Chicago, Prodways has announced the development of its Clear Aligners Manufacturing Ecosystem, meant to cover all aspects of the design and production of clear aligners. Developed in partnership with prevalent companies in the digital dentistry space—3Shape, Full Contour, Imes-Icore and Dreve—the product ecosystem can deliver up to 1200 aligners daily, according to Prodways.
As SmarTech Analysis has reported, the market for additive manufacturing in dentistry was on track to surpass $2.7 billion in 2019, with an anticipated 500 million dental devices and restorations projected to be produced annually by 2022. If you’ve seen an TV ads lately, you’ve likely caught one 3D-printed dental item that is already in high demand.
Clear dental aligners were among the first consumer products to be mass manufactured with the use of 3D printing. These devices are typically made by the following workflow: an intraoral scan of a patient’s mouth captures the 3D data used to design a model of their teeth; this model is 3D printed before the aligner thermoformed on top of the mold.
Given the success of clear aligners, not only are there now numerous competing aligner brands, but also 3D printing companies vying for their business. Prodways aims to stake out its own territory in the segment with what it considers the first end-to-end digital manufacturing solution. This includes 3D scanning, data preparation, treatment design, 3D printing, thermoforming, laser marking and trimming, with hardware and software integration and automation along each step. Part of this automation comes in the form of the automatic platform loader and unloader (seen in the video below), a semi-automatic thermoforming module and an automatic laser marking and trimming module.
With Prodways linking together 3Shape, Full Contour, Imes-Icore and Dreve, each companies’ hardware and software are interoperable. This results in the ability to manufacture up to 1200 aligners per day at what Prodways suggests is a low cost-per-part and a short time to market.
This ecosystem is a significant one for Prodways, which has been building its spot in the dental market for some time. The company’s MOVINGLight DLP technology is known for its high throughput, making it ideal for batch production of products like dental molds for aligners. The release of the LD3 system marked the company’s entry into smaller systems that can be used in dentistry, as well as jewelry and other fields. The acquisition of Solidscape also added to its footprint in the dental market.
As Prodways works to fully automate the process of making clear dental aligners, they may have some stiff competition, particularly from the likes of HP, which is already claiming to make 50,000 molds for aligners per day via its customer, the Smile Direct Club.
3D printing has had a huge impact on digital dentistry. From increased efficiency and cost savings, to faster production speeds and improved quality, all due to: new software, 3D scanners, additive technologies and post-processing methods. Today we’ll describe three ways digital dentistry benefits from 3D printing. But first, to give you an idea how 3D […]
Zortrax has just launched a new line of biocompatible resins for medical and dental applications. These new materials are especially useful for bridges, crowns, surgical and prosthetic goods. Zortrax has also optimised these materials for use with their Inkspire 3D printer, allowing for precise and quick development of crucial medical devices using their LCD printing […]
A collaboration between SmileDirectClub and HP will bring straighter smiles to millions of customers as the former becomes the largest Multi Jet Fusion 3D manufacturer in the US with 49 continuously-operating HP Jet Fusion 4210 3D printing systems. With the fleet of advanced 3D printers, they’ll be able to produce almost 20 million unique mouth […]
Invisalign is one of the 3D printing manufacturing success stories. The clear aligners company has changed how you can straighten your teeth. By using CT scan based unique 3D printed molds to make a series of aligners for you as your teeth change Invisalign has made getting a more movie-like smile easier. The firm has 3D printed millions of stereolithography molds over the years and built out the segment to a well-known brand. Recently their success has attracted a number of competitors, chief amongst them SmileDirectClub.
SmileDirectClub is pursuing an aggressive growth strategy in deploying direct to consumer marketing to become the number two purveyor of smiles worldwide. For molding SLA (stereolithography) is difficult to beat. Parts come out at the smoothest quality for 3D printing with high levels of detail. There is some finishing always with this technology and the resins are very expensive but on the whole, whether it be for jewelry lost wax casting, dental molds or things like aligners the technology is tried and true. Tens of millions of SLA parts have been used in indirect manufacturing and for this application it (and the related DLP technology) is the most obvious technology to try. Its the default by a wide margin and most wouldn’t veer away from it.
The smile hunters at SmileDirectClub tried a different route however. Smile Direct Club now uses HP’s Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printing technology to produce molds. I’d like to personally extend a heartfelt hug and high five to the HP sales/business development person that made this happen. You dear Sir or Madame are amazing! You rock. This is an achievement. You took a bag of powdery parts and talked these people out of the slippery smooth SLA way. Salespeople could just be at the right firm at the right time. Like a cruise ship passenger, a salesperson could just have boarded the right cruise at the right time and the ship, crew, captain all could have fallen in place to make their bonus possible quarter after quarter. Or the best salesperson ever could have simply gotten on the wrong pirate ship. Sometimes however salespeople make a real difference and break into new markets and applications. This is one of those times. Amazing job and indeed a great day for HP.
SmileDirectClub will use 49 HP Jet Fusion 3D printers for manufacturing 24/7. The printers will make more than 50,000 molds a day. This makes SmileDirectClub one of the largest users of HP systems worldwide. The company is on track to make 20 million 3D printed molds over the next 12 months.
In one fell swoop HP has gone from, looks cute might delete later, to a viable option for manufacturing companies. If you can make positives for mold applications cost effectively then a lot of other applications will be possible also. At the same time, the partners will turn the molds and unused powder into pellets for injection molding applications. All companies should do this. This is great for people that used to hang out with Sting and the world in general as well. Its also quite the brilliant marketing move because the competing SLA molds are thermosets and can’t be recycled. This representa a Big day for HP and a sends a strong signal for the validation of the technology. Well done all around.
SmarTech Analysis, a market research firm that specializes in additive manufacturing, recently released the fifth edition of its Additive Manufacturing in Dentistry report. The report includes an analysis of the technologies, processes, and materials used by dental labs and clinics as well as coverage of the shift in the dental industry to 3D printing solutions […]
EnvisioTEC is, by now, one of the most prominent names in DLP technology. The company has been showing around its new releases in trade-shows all throughout 2018. In 2019, they’ll be following up by launching their latest Envision One line cDLM (Continuous Digital Light Manufacturing) machines. The line will feature their end-to-end solution comprising brand new, […]
Researchers in Germany are using 3D printing to improve treatments for babies with cleft lips and palates. In a study conducted at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), scientists have used 3D printing and semi-automated workflow to improve the process of nasoalveolar molding (NAM), a medical procedure used to help children with birth defects that […]
Have you signed up for Trends & Innovations in Dentistry and 3D Printing for Dental Materials? The three day course starts September 25, and features thought leaders like Steven K. Pollack, Ph.D., and his session, Digital Light Synthesis, The De Facto Standard for the Dental Industry.
In the session, you’ll learn how to:
Make sense of the regulatory landscape for 3D printed dental applications
Understand advances in digital dentistry driven by software, dependable printer technologies and better materials
Uncover how advancements influence both dental laboratories and patient experience
Steven K. Pollack, Ph.D., Senior Staff Research Scientist, Carbon
When you sign up today through August 17, you’ll take advantage of our special early bird rate (45 percent savings). Other speakers include Menno Pot, Senior Application Technology Engineer for Dental 3D Systems and Samuel Wainwright, Dental Product Manager, Formlabs.
Trends & Innovations in Dentistry and 3D Printing kicks off September 25
Want to learn more about the influence of 3D printing on the future of industries? You can also check out our other fall classes, 3D Printing in Metal and 3D Printing with Polymers, starting in September and October, respectively. We’re offering special early bird rates for each class. In addition to savings, early sign ups will get access to advanced materials to get started learning right away!
Californian dental 3D printing company SprintRay has just released a major update to its digital dentistry ecosystem. A whole host of new resin profiles, drastically improved slicing performance, and a new software feature dubbed ‘Pixel Toning’ were released. Let’s take a closer look. Pixel Toning Unlike grayscaling features found on other 3D printers, Pixel Toning […]
Steven K. Pollack, Ph.D., Senior Staff Research Scientist, Carbon