3D Printer & Accessories

3D Printer & Accessories

3D Printers for Dental is a very widespread name in this growing era of time. It is also known as additive manufacturing which is widely used in different manufacturing industries as well as in dentistry.

3D Printer & Accessories Price

History

The origin of 3D printing can be traced back to 1986, when the 1st patent was issued for stereolithography Apparatus (SLA). This patent belonged to Charles (Chuck) Hull, the one who first invented the SLA machine in 1983.

The Modern 3D Printing Technology

In this modern world and with the cut throat competition between the industries, it is very important not to only provide the items on time but with precision and accuracy specially if we talk about in the dental world.

With the CAD/CAM Technology, which has shown to be a great tool in the dentistry, CAM (Computer-Aided technology) has mostly relied on the milling machine but in the recent times introduction to the 3D printing Dental Industry has changed the game in a whole new level.

Uses of 3D Printing in Dentistry

Technologies Used in 3D Printing Dental Industry

The term 3D printer includes many uses of  3D printing technologies in dentistry, this includes:

• Digital beam melting (EBM)
• Digital light processing(DLP)
• Fused deposition modelling (FDM)
• Laminated object manufacturing (LOM)
• Binder jetting (BJ)
• Material jetting (MJ)
• Selective laser melting (SLM)
• Selective laser sintering (SLS)
• Stereolithography (SLA)

These technologies also sorted into 7 different types of process that describe how the layers are made and what material can be used. It should be noted that all the process are not suitable for every material.

• Laser or Light polymerization or Polymerization is also for polymer and plastic (SLA, DLP)
• Material extrusion for polymer, plastic , ceramic or anything having paste-like consistency (FDM)
• Powder bed fusion for polymer and metal alloys  (SLM, SLS)
• Lamination or Sheet lamination for plastic, metal alloys, paper and etc. (LOM)
• Directed energy deposition just for metals (DED)
  

Most Common 3D Printing Technology:

1. Selective Laser Sintering (SLS):- It Includes multiple techniques like selective laser melting (SLM) or direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). They have same principle but branded differently for pa-tent reason and often varies slightly. They are often used for the processing of ceramics and nylon while SLM is mostly used for metal alloys.

The name of this technology is self-explanatory: a laser targets powdered material (e.g. metal) which sinters it into the pre-programmed shape. This type of dental printer in 3D is also called as powder bed fusion as it uses a bed of powder to support the design and no additional support is necessary, this keeps the post-processing minimal.

This process used in a porous and fragile product but the final products are much denser and stronger and also very accurate (50 - 100 µm) which makes it great for processing metal frame-works such as CoCr or titanium.

2. Stereolithography or (SLA): Stereolithography or SLA is another very popular form of 3D printing used in dentistry. It is one of the oldest methods of additive manufacturing. There has been a significant advancement in this technology in the recent years, as a mask stereolithography (MSLA) and digital light processing (DLP). This has become one of the most popular type of 3D printers in the dental industry.

These printers use polymerization or photopolymerization principles: Thin increments of photo-sensitive liquid material in a vat is cured with UV light until a whole layer is formed.  The platform then moves away from the vat vertically, thus makes a room for another layer. These layers then adhere to each other from a self-adhesive property of the polymer.

A night guard attached to the build platform. Printing using a DLP 3D Printer by NextDent.

The biggest difference between SLA and DLP is the formation of the layers. SLA printers form the layer point by point, while DLP printers form a whole layer at once, this reduces the printing time significantly. These printers provide high accurate results (40 - 100 µm). This technology is it has small build platform so the operator needs to resort to vertical positioning for the stacking.

3. Fused Deposition Modelling – FDM: Fused deposition modeling or FDM, is a material extrusion type of digital dentistry and 3D Printing technology. Thermoplastic material comes in the form of string and is pushed through a nozzle that heats the material to its melting point. This nozzle moves over the platform and below it and deposit the softer, melted material on the platform but only in certain places which is determined by the pre-programmed path of the nozzle. Once the layer is complete, the platform is lowered and a new layer forms in the same manner. In dentistry, it is polymers and plastic material.  FDM is also fairly accurate (200 - 500 µm).

4. Digital light processing (DLP): It is a similar process to stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing process that works with photopolymers. The major difference is the light source in DLP and SLA. DLP uses a more conventional light source, e.g. arc lamp, it has a liquid crystal display panel or a deformable mirror device (DMD), which is applied to the entire surface of the vat of photopolymer resin in a single pass which makes it faster than SLA.

Also like SLA, DLP produces highly accurate parts with high resolution, but its similarities also include the same requirements for support structures and post-curing. However, one advantage of DLP over SL is that only a shallow vat of resin is required to facilitate the process, which generally results in less waste and lower running costs.